Up to 90 percent of US paper money has traces of cocaine

Source: Examiner

Up to 90 percent of US paper money has traces of cocaine
August 17, 9:21 AM · Meg Marquardt - Science News Examiner


If you live in a big city and are carrying piece of paper money, you are probably transporting illegal drugs. A team from University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth has found that bills from the US and Canada are highly likely to have trace amounts of cocaine, showing for the first time a growing prevalence in the abuse of the drug.

A worldwide study of bills from over 30 cities in five countries found a startling statistic: “cocaine is present in up to 90 percent of paper money in the United States, particularly in large cities such as Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. The scientists found traces of cocaine in 95 percent of the banknotes analyzed from Washington, D.C., alone.” What is intriguing is that a study conducted two years ago showed 67 percent of bills had traces of cocaine. That means there was over a 20 percent jump.

What has happened over the past two years that caused the growth in cocaine-tainted bills? "I'm not sure why we've seen this apparent increase, but it could be related to the economic downturn, with stressed people turning to cocaine," Dr. Yuegang Zuo, lead author of the study, said. Zuo hopes his study can help law enforcement agencies better understand the flow and growth of drug use in communities.

234 US bills from 17 cities were investigated. The results showed that “amounts ranged from .006 micrograms (several thousands of times smaller than a single grain of sand) to over 1,240 micrograms of cocaine per banknote (about 50 grains of sand).” How the drug gets on the bills is well-understood. Money changes hand during a drug deal (of course), but bills are also used in the consumption of cocaine as the drug can be rolled into a bill and snorted. The city with the greatest chance of finding traces of the drug was DC. Salt Lake City bills were the least likely to be contaminated.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Up-to-90-percent-of-US-paper-money-has-traces-of-cocaine

Dogs could smell Cocaine on Bills. Dogs smelled cocaine on bills, man arrested for drug trafficking based on the Cocaine on the bills (which was subsequent confirmed by lab tests). The problem was over 90% of the 20 dollar bills then in circulation had cocaine levels that could be detected by a dog. Cocaine is one of the stickiest substance know and sticks to everything it comes near, including the machinery to process bills used by Banks and the US Federal Reserve System. Clean bills can go into such systems and come out with enough cocaine residue to be detected by a dog.

The Judge ruled that the presence on Cocaine on bills, given the above, is NOT probable cause for an arrest and through out the case. Yes this is THAT old.

Money is dirty with an awful lot of other less pleasant things, as well.

If I lick all of my dollar bills (both of them), I can get high for what... four nano-seconds? Awesome.

Actually, "foldin' money" is pretty nasty. Ever wonder why bank tellers, cashiers, and just about anyone else who is in constant contact with cash goes through Purell by the gallon?

This statement is inaccurate and misleading..

"as the drug can be rolled into a bill and snorted."

The drug can be rolled into a bill? The drug is not rolled, how does anyone "roll" cocaine? I guess it's not as widely understood as they may think, because that doesn't make any sense.

LOL!

But why does the cocaine on the bills have traces of razor blades in it? ;-)

:scared:

But Salt Lake City bills likely had traces of salt and sand.

value of the dollar is going up!! yea.

*Looks into his magic eight ball and sees snapshot of the Bush administration*