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Cocaine is being spiked with an anti-parasite drug

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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:12 PM
Original message
Cocaine is being spiked with an anti-parasite drug
If you know any active addicts or vulnerable people in recovery
Warn them.


Nationwide Public Health Alert Issued Concerning Life-Threatening Risk Posed by Cocaine Laced with Veterinary Anti-Parasite Drug
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is alerting medical professionals, substance abuse treatment centers and other public health authorities about the risk that substantial levels of cocaine may be adulterated with levamisole – a veterinary anti-parasitic drug. There have been approximately 20 confirmed or probable cases of agranulocytosis (a serious, sometimes fatal blood disorder), including two deaths, associated with cocaine adulterated with levamisole. The number of reported cases is expected to increase as information about cocaine adulterated with levamisole is disseminated.

“SAMHSA and other public health authorities are working together to inform everyone of this serious potential public health risk and what measures are being taken to address it,” said SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick, D.D.S., MPH.

http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/090921vet5101.aspx

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eShirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:15 PM
Response to Original message
1. kick
this info could save a life
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. Not to discount this, but what does this do to the animals? And it was good
of you to post the warning. Remember when heroin was being cut with something that caused Parkinsons in people?
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madeline_con Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:25 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Wiki
Levamisole
It was originally used as an antihelminthic to treat worm infestations in both humans and animals. Most commercial preparations are intended for veterinary use as a dewormer for cattle, pigs, and sheep. However, it has also gained prominence among aquarists as an effective treatment for Camallanus roundworm infestations in freshwater tropical fish. <3>

It has been tested in combination with fluorouracil to treat colon cancer. There is no good evidence from clinical trials that its addition to fluorouracil therapy benefits patients with colon cancer, and it is no longer used for this. It is also used infrequently to treat melanoma and head and neck cancer. It is unclear from its mechanism of action why it would have an effect in treating colon cancer, although it has been shown to have "immune-stimulating" properties in some situations.

A 1984 study on complicated viral influenza had found levamisole to be an effective interferon inducer and had recommended its use in combination therapy for influenza.<4>

It is also used routinely in India to treat steroid dependent childhood nephrotic syndrome cases, which is probably based on literature published in a few UK based studies.<5>

Levamisole has become the subject of recent attention in the medical and public health communities as an alleged new cutting agent that is claimed to be used for adulterating cocaine. There have been a few hospital cases first in Canada and the United States, of patients with life-threatening, cocaine-associated neutropenia that is attributed to levamisole-adulterated cocaine.<6>

--------------------------------
Neutropenia (adjective neutropenic), from Latin prefix neutro- and Greek suffix -πενία (deficiency) is a hematological disorder characterized by an abnormally low number of neutrophils, the most important type of white blood cell, in the blood. Neutrophils usually make up 50-70% of circulating white blood cells and serve as the primary defense against infections by destroying bacteria in the blood. Hence, patients with neutropenia are more susceptible to bacterial infections and, without prompt medical attention, the condition may become life-threatening (neutropenic sepsis).
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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Kinda worried
Because addicts are treated like waste ,and all the novel forms of flu,and since the RW has a eugenicist past,wants to blame the victims,and wants to eradicate the poor and value property over people and the fuckers want to ruin especially poor black people's lives, since there is a bit of clandestine ops concerning crack hitting the streets and the "war on drugs"..... well just saying..
http://blog.spot.us/tag/poverty/
http://rwor.org/a/firstvol/crack2.htm

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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Well, there WAS a loud concern voiced about the heroin/Parkinsons thing --
hopefully the light will be shined (shone?) on this and this practice will cease. I'm guessing that's what happened in the other instance - the people using it were made aware, plus the people making money off of them didn't want to lose paying customers. :shrug:

Agree, though, that addicts are viewed as little more than animals, and it's shameful.
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. How interesting! Thanks!! nt
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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 10:52 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. I have heard of all sorts of nasty
shit used to cut drugs strychnine,formaldehyde and worse.
If cocaine powder is being cut with the anti parasite drug,what happens when it is cooked into crack,does the drug stay in the rocks,in a weaker dose,one that might not kill but could weaken immune systems and sicken users just enough to tough it out and cause a pandemic to explode?? Scary to think this contamination could potentially kill so many, addicts and non-addicts alike and it will destroy the ones with the least ability to get help, first.
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PDJane Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-23-09 11:22 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. And this kind of adulteration
is one of the best reasons to legalize the stuff, make sure it's clean, and tax it the same way one does things like alcohol.

People will ingest this stuff, and the best way to deal with it is to make sure that it's as safe as it can be and isn't getting into the hands of minors.
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. +1 -- wholeheartedly! nt
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. It's infuriating. The big dealers are making so much money off of their drug
trade, this doesn't need to happen. They're not the ones stepping on it, though, but there has to be innocuous, cheap agents to use that won't hurt people. It makes me so mad -- nobody is looking out for these addicts/users. :grr:
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anonymous171 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
9. Why bother? Addicts are irrational. They don't care if it might kill them.
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 12:56 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. I care. And if they weren't in the throes of their addiction, they'd care, too. nt
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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 02:27 PM
Response to Original message
13. kick for the PSA
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-24-09 02:28 PM
Response to Original message
14. I would not be surprised if the DEA did this themselves
Remember Paraquat anyone?
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