-New Update Added 09/25/2009!! - Widely Used Cocaine Additive Kills 3, Sickens Dozens

[Kaelfi]

This is scary! I had a major prob with coke for years . In the past 6 years I have been clean more than not (1.5 years + 1.5 years + 6mos +6mos etc you get the the drift). The past year I have used twice. I think this will give me another incentive to stay clean!

I do however believe that legalizing & regulating the drug trade would be the best solution all around. The tax revenue could be used to help long term addicts & those that occasionally use would not be risking their lives with tainted product!

The drug war is a farce.

 

[phase_dancer]

I DO wonder if there IS possibly some sort of reagent that would be able to distinguish pure cocaine from cocaine with levamisole... If there was, someone should make "EZ Test Kits" for coke, like is common with MDMA. If that was done, that would definitely be a step towards harm reduction.

Cobalt thiocyanate reagent for detection (will also react with some other compounds)
Potassium thiocyanate is used to estimate purity (effectiveness is often questioned)

I believe EZ makes, or used to make these kits.

Levamisole is detectable with Mandelin & Liebermann's reagents. Liebermann's gives a red-orange and Mandelin gives an orange which changes to a grey-green.

There's also some solubility differences between both fb and salts. Probably the most helpful is the difference between the salts in water. Cocaine 1 in 0.4 of water, and Levamisole soluble 1 in 2 of water. Levamisole fb is noted as soluble in dilute acetic acid, but I don't know how much help that would be. Melting points are quite different for both fb and HCl salt; Levamisole fb M.p. 60° to 61.5°, cocaine fb M.p. 98°, so distillation might work. Cocaine fb is also soluble in ethyl acetate, but I have no data for Levamisole.

 

[Blador]

The drug chemists seem to have done a bit of a research there, eh? Everyone thinks they just add a lot of amphetamines to the cocaine, but it seems they actually have more advanced, safer (after all, amphetamine is just as illegal as coke in many/most places, it would suck for them to get caught with a shipment of amp that was just going to be used as a cut) and probably more lucrative schemes. That sucks though, I wonder if the coke in Peru and Bolivia is also being laced with that shit.

 

[thissongiscalled]

Ugh thats horrible odds, theres a pretty high chance of having put that shit into your system...I already dont fancy blow to much but this really makes me not to want to do it again.

 

[Paregoric Kid]

interestingly levamisole has been demonstrated to ease opiate withdrawal in rats. it may do this because it increases the level of endogenous opiates like endorphins and enkephalins. it also increases the level of dopamine and serotonin.

 

[rm-rf]

wow

terrible

so fucking glad cocaine is my least favorite drug. id rather be sober.

 

[theWorldWithin]

That is a hell of a generalization. 'cain the the 2nd most used illegal drug in the USA. I have a lot of trouble taking what is underlined seriously. Maybe you would be willing to back up those statements?

Not necessary to back up facts for a guy with the nick "Bell Ringer". Just think of some of the grimy shit you have done personally for coke and there is all the answer you need. Like it or not, an test kit is not profitable for the reasons I listed. Look up some demographics for cocaine users if you don't believe me but I believe the personal experience of 99% percent of users will be enough.

 

[Bell Ringer]

I am amazed at your ignorence

Not necessary to back up facts for a guy with the nick "Bell Ringer". Just think of some of the grimy shit you have done personally for coke and there is all the answer you need. Like it or not, an test kit is not profitable for the reasons I listed. Look up some demographics for cocaine users if you don't believe me but I believe the personal experience of 99% percent of users will be enough.

You are so full of shit. 99% is so far off that I am in awe of your ignorce. Plenty of educated people use cocaine habiutlly, even freebase (OMG!). Many of these people hold jobs and are "funtional". Don't forget to include the occasional users and factor in your daftness.

I have not done anything grimy for cocaine, ever. I'm not rich either. I don't need a test kit because I always use multiple test.

Your words imply that you have lived a very sheltered life.

 

[ranunky]

according to the wikipedia entry, levamisole's melting point is considerably lower than cocaine, so why would it survive pyrolysis?

Nothing survives pyrolysis. Pyrolysis, by definition, transforms or destroys a compound.

The melting point is the temperature at which the compound turns drom solid phase to liquid phase. This has nothing to do with it's stability under heat (although an unstable compound might break down at lower temperatures than it's melting point).

 

[thebuzzardking]

Man thats sickening...it's also a big deal just think of the snowball effect less people use cocaine/possibly turning to speed.(which is so demonized it's ridicoulous)guess changing the crack Vs. cocaine laws just wasn't putting people away long enough. Now if you do do cocaine you get to send your money to another country to pay for something that kills you without any pleasure....thank you failled american drug policy.

 

[hanselrabbit]

Nothing survives pyrolysis. Pyrolysis, by definition, transforms or destroys a compound.

The melting point is the temperature at which the compound turns drom solid phase to liquid phase. This has nothing to do with it's stability under heat (although an unstable compound might break down at lower temperatures than it's melting point).

Yes, the phrasing I quoted was inexact. It's obvious I'm talking about the melting point. I answered my own question like two lines further down. It would be interesting to apply a test for LHCL before putting a sample under a uv lamp for 24 hours and then after.

 

[Tchort]

Update

There is some new information out relating to this issue.

09/24/2009

Los Angeles Times

A federal agency warned this week that cocaine laced with levamisole, a veterinary anti-parasitic drug, has caused 20 cases of a serious medical disorder.
Officials at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration say they expect to see more cases of people sickened by the adulterated cocaine as doctors learn of the association. The drug mixture has caused agranulocytosis, a life-threatening disorder that causes a drop in the number of white blood cells. Two deaths have occurred among the 20 confirmed or suspected cases related to adulterated cocaine.

Levamisole is used in cattle, sheep and swine to prevent parasites. It is not approved for human use.

It is unclear how and why levamisole is turning up in cocaine. Drug Enforcement Administration testing shows the amount of levamisole-laced cocaine in circulation in the United States has been increasing since 2002. In samples of illicit cocaine analyzed in July, more than 70% contained levamisole. A recent study performed in Seattle found that 80% of people who tested positive for cocaine also tested positive for levamisole.

Agranulocytosis comes on very fast with severe symptoms. People who use cocaine should watch out for high fever, chills, weakness, swollen glands, painful sores in the mouth and anus and any infection that won't go away or gets worse very fast.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Levamisole is used to treat livestock for parasites but has been showing up in cocaine. Credit: Danny Johnston / Associated Press

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/09/cocaine-levamisole.html

 

[Shambles]

If there was, someone should make "EZ Test Kits" for coke, like is common with MDMA.

Someone has and you got it in one - EZ-Test White

Pretty sure it won't test for this particular cut, sadly. It was quite widely discussed on the national news media here a while back but there's been no mention of it since. The problem clearly hasn't vanished although the news coverage of it here has

 

[Aloric]

No, it has been said above that it survives all sorts of conversions and even pyrolysis (vaporization). There is probably no easy way to remove it from the product, otherwise people would be doing that already.

Also, it is EXTREMELY highly unlikely that Levamisole would cause a false positive on a drug test, I don't think it has a similar structure to any tested drugs...

I DO wonder if there IS possibly some sort of reagent that would be able to distinguish pure cocaine from cocaine with levamisole... If there was, someone should make "EZ Test Kits" for coke, like is common with MDMA. If that was done, that would definitely be a step towards harm reduction.

Absolutely agree.
The U.S. & Canada has scores of brilliant entrepreneurial chem. engineers. I cannot accept that a reliable, robust Test Kit' will not SOON be widely available (with specific website for genuine Kit sales).
TestKits for this shitty Cut should be physically available to the public ASAP. This should be treated using epidemiology protocols (as Bricks are broken up, stepped on & further dispersed),while anticipating trends.
Good and timely data provided by users of an illegal drug, especially one frquently abused by 'reputable' individuals is almost impossible. Plus it will be very slow to figure in trends. An easy, widely avail. Testkit, avail. for private use in identifying this crappy adulterant is a must!
Daylight's wastin', enough already.

 

[Aloric]

Someone has and you got it in one - EZ-Test White

Pretty sure it won't test for this particular cut, sadly. It was quite widely discussed on the national news media here a while back but there's been no mention of it since. The problem clearly hasn't vanished although the news coverage of it here has

Did it say in Seattle ALONE, 80 PERCENT who tested Pos.for Blow, also had this Demon Shit Cut in there system?!! Holy Crap! And that's likely just a part of a piece of a fraction of a section of one city.
Imagine the Hordes of "Well to do" professionals who abuse coke but could'nt admit it to Jesus Christ under pain of burning in eternal Hell!
If we knew REALLY how many in Canada and the US were in Hospital NOT for a virulent flu, nor endocarditis, food poisining, jaundice, dropsy, etc.; but because of a shit coke cut.. i would bet the actual Truth re # ill affected well exceeds Ten, perhaps twentyfold the number known or reported.
... even when about to undergo surgery! most people will hardly tell a stranger or write on a medical questionnaire about a ten year addiction to crack or whatever and hey!... Also cheated on a physics test in college, & I like to masterbate between three and ten times a week (depending on extent of my illegal drug abuse, of course) and I also feel horny watching my daughters' soccer games. Would you also like details of a nocturnal homoerotic encounter with a stranger I once had in an I-40 Truckstop restroom?

 

[Shambles]

Did it say in Seattle ALONE, 80 PERCENT who tested Pos.for Blow, also had this Demon Shit Cut in there system?!!

Nup. Cos I live in the UK so it was about British coke - it's a worldwide problem not just a North American one. It was widely reported here a coupla months ago that this stuff was being used to cut coke. Unfortunately the headlines were mainly about the low purity of British cocaine rather than focussed on this stuff. When this particular cut was mentioned it sounded like the usual government bullshit - they didn't point out it was a global phenomenon.

 

[psilocybonaut]

Looks like the CDC might actually be starting to get on top of this.

At my methadone clinic, there are now flyers posted in every counselors' room talking about the levamisole problem and how it is a pubic health problem. This should have happened months ago, but at least word is starting to get out.

 

[MajorMethane]

Once, I said...

Leviamilsole is OK


Oi, Lev was an old love of mine, I was't commenting in context of it being used unscruplously by vendors of Marching Powders. Facts prove it's deadly.

What it is good for, it's really really good for: no so much worms (handwashing and all that, y'know) but to stimulate 'macrophages' to consume any abnormal or 'other-' cell it encounters perking thru yr system. My understanding then was that in the first half hour after absorbtion each macro. consumes more than it's volume in bad shit. What put me off it was later research that showed that all these shit filled cells all die at once, and yr effectively immunocompromised until yr marrow replaces them. Hmmmm.

Leviamilsole is OK Old 05-09-2009, 20:38 #31
MajorMethane
Greenlighter

 

[jspun]

First I've heard of an anticholinesterase increasing dopaminergic activity

Me too, my theoretical base rusty. I would think that + Ach stimulation would have a variable effect might even cause the opposite effect on DA neurotransmission, depending on what Ach receptor involved? Nicotinic stimulation- maybe increase DA???

 

[pkt]

Does anyone with mad chem skills be able to say whether this stuff would separate from the coke when you turn it to freebase?

cook it to freebase then yes...