[imagesource: CC0 1.0 Universal]

Drugs are bad, okay?

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can laugh about one of Dave Chappelle’s greatest TV moments.

Chappelle’s Show was a phenomenon when it aired for three seasons between 2003 and 2006.

Some of the characters from the sketches are quoted to this day and the ‘Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories’ sketch starring Rick James will forever be remembered for this, along with “I’m Rick James, bitch!”

That’s the face of a man who has hoovered up his fair share of cocaine.

What does any of this have to do with 100% pure cocaine? I’m glad you asked.

The stuff you find at the street level has usually been cut and chopped with all sorts of rubbish before it reaches the nostrils. A 2015 study in the UK by the Drugs at the National Crime Agency (NCA) found that some street seizures had zero traces of cocaine.

Even the stuff they seized by the ounce was rarely more than 25% purity.

However, a warning is sent out every so often, as it was in 2017, that high-purity cocaine had hit the streets. VICE chatted with neuropharmapsychologist and former government drugs adviser David Nutt to find out what a hit would feel like:

…purer coke would give a “surge of peaceful euphoria, alertness and a feeling of power and energy. Users would feel intensely euphoric and afterwards feel super confident and happy, and urgently want to talk, dance, have sex, or otherwise do something with the energy they have.”

Sounds horrible.

The night continues, you’re all revved up and you continue to dabble, and it’s here that things take a turn:

“Cocaine is a vasoconstrictor, and the majority of coke-related hospital admissions are cardiac issues,” says Nutt. “As purity increases, so does your risk of heart damage and overdose. The increased risk would likely be related to acute heart damage or overdose, rather than dependency, which is a chronic consideration, versus high purity on any given night.”

…because most coke users are used to shitty coke, the threat of overdosing becomes very real by the third or fourth line – if, that is, they’re done at the same size and regularity as normal.

Make it through the night (and early morning) with your ticker intact and there’s the dreaded comedown to deal with.

High-purity cocaine is going to lead to a pretty awful come down due to the body’s chemical imbalances. On the plus side, it will contain fewer contaminants and cutting agents so you’ll avoid those side effects.

In Dundee, Scotland, this month, a dealer was caught with three kilos of 73% purity cocaine. According to police, this is well above the usual purity level they come across.

It remains to be seen what effect a massive drug bust announced this week, where authorities in six different countries took down a “super cartel” of drugs traffickers controlling about one-third of the cocaine trade in Europe, has on the availability and quality of the drug in the coming months.

Just be safe, okay – Rick said cocaine is a hell of a drug and he would know.

Yes, you should take a few minutes to watch that clip in full before you get on with your day.

[source:vice]