Pink Cocaine: The Glamorous Drug with Deadly Consequences

While fentanyl is still a drug of major concern, a new pretty little party drug cocktail is gaining attention worldwide. From the club scenes in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, to an international drug seizure in Australia and links to celebrity news, pink cocaine is quickly becoming a drug of concern.

Pink cocaine – what is it?

It is a recreational drug that is also referred to as “Tusi”. It got its nickname from its original primary compound called 2C-B, a psychedelic phenylethylamine developed by chemist Alexander Shulgin in 1974 as part of a 2C family of methamphetamine related drugs. Since 2C-B became hard to obtain, it is rarely a component of pink cocaine these days. As a result, manufacturers have created their own drug cocktails that they dye pink with food coloring, strawberries or other food dyes.

Other nicknames for this synthetic drug cocktail include Tuci, Tucibi, Peruvian Pink, Cocaina Rosa, etc.

Rarely injected, tusi is usually snorted as a powder or ingested in a pill form and according to the DEA it costs anywhere from $20 and $100 and is being sold online and through social media apps.

Pretty but dangerous

While the pink color and sweet smell may lead some to think it is not that dangerous, that is not the case. The truth is that users may not be aware of what their Tusi may contain, and they may be in for some severe reactions (as listed below).

In fact, it is impossible to know what is in it unless a sample is tested. And despite its name, cocaine may not always be present. Opioids, bath salts, and hallucinogens have also been found in Tusi samples. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has identified ketamine, MDMA, methamphetamine, fentanyl and xylazine in tested samples. And with fentanyl being present the potential for overdose and death increases.

In an NBC article New York city narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan was quoted as saying: “I think the most dangerous aspect of it, is that you typically see stimulants, which might be methamphetamine or cocaine, mixed with other substances like ketamine that are sedating, meaning they have the opposite effect on the body. If you have a drug that’s telling your heart to speed up and another drug that’s telling your heart to slow down, that’s a problem.”

Another concern is that in addition to the effects listed above it is known to cause amnesia and is being found used in date rape cases, according to Brennan.

David Lanzoni, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s New England field division told CBS-WBZ: “Just a few milligrams of pink cocaine can have the same effect of approximately 60 milligrams of actual cocaine. So that’s kind of scary because you don’t really know what you’re ingesting.”

What are its side effects?

From minor to severe, just like any recreational drug, it has its range of symptoms.

• Mild – Euphoria, a lack of inhibition, and a sense of openness.
• Adverse – elevated body temperature, hallucinations, anxiety, increased blood pressure and heart rates, nausea/vomiting, seizures, overdose, etc. In the event of an overdose, it is possible that Narcan may be effective in that some mixtures may contain opiates and/or fentanyl.
• Long term/fatal – addiction, increased risk of stroke, behavioral changes, heart problems, coma, death, etc.

In the news

During the last several weeks it has been mentioned in several news stories:

• In Australia 252kg of “Pink Panther” packaged pink cocaine was seized during an import drug bust.
• It was one of multiple drugs listed in toxicology findings that contributed to the death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• The sexual harassment and trafficking lawsuit filed in February against Sean “Diddy” Combs mentions pink cocaine, in addition to GHB, regular cocaine, THC gummies, and ecstasy as being required to be carried by all of his employees in pouches or fanny packs. And that these drugs had to be accessible whenever he wanted them.
• 800 grams of pink cocaine (worth about $80,000 on the street) was recently seized by drug enforcement agents in New York.

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