If you’ve put cocaine up your nose recently, there’s roughly an 80% chance that you’ve ingested a cattle deworming medication that will give you “chemical Aids” if ingested in the right quantities. Oh, and hairspray.

Kim Gosner is a chemist specialising in the study of narcotics. Vice caught up with him to find out about all of the terrifying things people are putting in their faces. These are our favourite bits from the lengthy story:

Levamisole is an anthelmintic drug, meaning it can be used to kill parasitic worms. The drug was previously used to deworm both humans and livestock, but since it was discovered to cause agranulocytosis (a severe depletion of white blood cells that leaves the body susceptible to infection), it’s only been used to treat worm-infested cattle. In addition to being a popular cow dewormer, it has become a very popular cocaine adulterant.

In 2005, levamisole was found in almost 2 percent of the cocaine seized by the DEA. In 2007, the frequency went up to 15 percent, and by 2011 a staggering 73 percent of all cocaine seized by the DEA had been cut with levamisole. The same tendency is seen in Europe and in the samples I have analyzed myself. From 2008 to 2009, the frequency was around 66 percent, and from 2011 to 2012 it had gone up to 90 percent in Danish cocaine.

Agranulocytosis is comparable to a chemical form of AIDS, where the immune system is so severely inhibited that even small infections and scratches can develop into life-threatening diseases.

Given the chemical diversity of available diluents and adulterants used in cocaine, it’s very difficult for a user to assess the quality of a street-level bag.

The most reliable street test in my opinion is actually the smell of cocaine, as it has a very distinct aroma that none of the additives possess. Unfortunately, for reference, this requires you to have smelled a lot of different cocaine of certain purities, and very few people have had that opportunity.

To read the whole shebang, click here.

[Source : Vice]