80% Of America’s Cocaine Contains A Substance That Eats Your Fucking Flesh, Oh Hell No

Dillon Cheverere10 years ago

It feels pretty damn good being a drug-free American. I don’t have to worry about the real dangers of drug use, like eating someone’s face off, or removing appendages, or gaining superhuman pain immunity that leads to using your own skull like a battering ram. And now we come to find out 80 percent of America’s booger sugar supply contains a drug called levamisole that eats away at human flesh? Oh hell no.

From ABC News:

Cocaine cut with the veterinary drug levamisole could be the culprit in a flurry of flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles.

The drug, used to deworm cattle, pigs and sheep, can rot the skin off noses, ears and cheeks. And over 80 percent of the country’s coke supply contains it.

“It’s probably quite a big problem, and we just don’t know yet how big a problem it really is,” said Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist with Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

In a case study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. And while they happened to hail from the country’s coastlines, the problem is national.

Cocaines distributors are using levamisole to stretch their supply instead of the more common baking soda because of the drug’s euphoric effects, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Doctors have only recently discovered the connection between the drug and its effect on flesh, and they don’t how severe and widespread the problem is.

Oh yeah, it could kill you, too.

As if rotting skin wasn’t enough, levamisole also prevents the bone marrow from producing infection-fighting white blood cells.

“It’s a little bit like having HIV,” said Craft, adding that without medical attention, the condition can be fatal. “About 10 percent of those patients will die from severe infections. They may be walking around like a time bomb.”

Be careful out there, guys. Say no to drugs. Or stick to pot. Dopers have nothing serious to be concerned with. No one ever lost their face from the munchies or laziness.

[via ABC News]

Image via AMC