Tests find traces of cocaine on banknotes

Following up on a recent Uk study that everyone is Britain is carrying around traces of the A class drug – on their banknotes, it seems suprisingly to most, that Ireland's Euros are similiarly affected.



It seems the worldwide falling street prices of formerly hard to obtain drugs such as coc aine and even heroin has been proven by recent studies which shockingly show that in some cases almost 100% of banknotes in countries such as Ireland, Spain and the UK contain traces of these drugs.
This is an alarming and quite saddening outlook on modern culture. Ireland itself many will be suprised to hear has one of the highest rates of coc aine use in young adults in Europe.

Related News Links:
www.theregister.co.uk
www.dailytimes.com.pk
news.bbc.co.uk

[edit on 9-1-2007 by asala]

I think most currency has traces of drugs, except for brand new notes. The drug trade is a big one all done in cash so a lot of these notes come into contact with illegal substances from time to time, and putting them together in a wallet spreads them too.

This isn't anything new.

I worked in the 'City of London' in a wine bar for a while -- the city runs on coc aine.

This is very old news that is well known. People who had gotten busted due to drug residue on cash used this information to get the case thrown out of court. Drugs and money are well known bed fellows.

Originally posted by Terapin
This is very old news that is well known. People who had gotten busted due to drug residue on cash used this information to get the case thrown out of court. Drugs and money are well known bed fellows.

I hadn't thought of that angle. Interesting.
Don't see how it is 'very old new' however, I only recently came across this
in the news. Different parts of the world i guess.
I have no doubt drugs and money go hand in hand but I never imagined upwards of 90% of the notes we use everyday might have been used as 'snorting devices' at one stage or another.
Shocking really.

Not just snorting devices. Drugs are big money. Virtually all transactions are in cash and in smaller denominations. Kilos get packed alongside cash. Drug packaging gets done in the same place as cash counting. Cross contamination is bound to happen.

tis good I don't touch cash. Only credit cards, check cards for me.

You've seen the movies, dont they dice the drugs with credit cards?

If one person uses a rolled up bill to snort coc aine and then spends the note the next day it will come in contact with other bills in the till. Some transfer has to occur with the other money, and when it goes in my pocket traces of the drug will go into the money I have.

Take a few bills and count them, your fingers touch every bill during the process.
It's not hard to imagine the ease with which traces of the drug would transfer from bill to bill.

I read a news story a while back that talked about a study that tested the river water of a city. They checked the city's effluent for drugs and other substances and were able to estimate an accurate model of the areas drug use.
I think antidepressants rated very high, and maybe hormones.
But they did note the use of illegal drugs and how the residue from human waste was introducing the drugs to the local environment.
I'll try to find a link.

That would be pretty sweet if I could get a stack of bills and scrape some coke off to make me a nice rail. On another note...I wonder if the material makeup of the bill helps keep the drugs on the bill therefore resulting in 100% contamination.

Police often use traces of drugs on money as an excuse to take money from people when they find large sums of money on them. Now it seems we could be accusing bankers of handling "drug money". I bet policmen are even carrying "drug money" in their wallets.

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
But they did note the use of illegal drugs and how the residue from human waste was introducing the drugs to the local environment.
I'll try to find a link.

I think I remember this story, I believe it was from Italy. They found a high level of coke (a chemical from a plant that only lives in South America) in some river.

Originally posted by Terapin
Not just snorting devices. Drugs are big money. Virtually all transactions are in cash and in smaller denominations. Kilos get packed alongside cash. Drug packaging gets done in the same place as cash counting. Cross contamination is bound to happen.

This is actually bad business policy for drug dealers, as you don't want to be caught with the drugs AND the money in the same place. That will make your case a lot harder to win in court. But I'm not questioning that it happens.

On the main topic. Cocaine is on the rise big time and has been for a few years now. It's the drug of choice for high society if you wish. Politicians, celebreties, stock brokers, basically anybody with a lot of money, status and/or high pressure jobs are on the stuff. It's a result of how society sees these people as more successfull and productive than someone shooting up heroin or smoking a joint, or for that matter drug-free, hard working, good people. There is just about no status in doing an hones job any more. It makes you cocky, strong, fearless and energetic, so is a big help to those who don't naturally have these "qualities".

They tested the EU parlament and found it on every toilet, same with many other political establishments around the world. The found lots of it here in the norwegian parlament as well. And these are toilets that are washed like twice a day So they're snorting up a lot of the stuff...

My dad is a truck driver, and was in Florida last week delivering a load to the port. Just as he was coming up the the gate, they closed off the port, two helicopters flew overhead, and a line of black SUV's and sedans flew by at high speed along with swat, DEA and police. It took almost 12 hours for him to get out of there, and through eventual cb chatter and talk amongst the guards, he found out of a HUGE drug bust. The largest i've ever heard of.

Turns out they busted a cargo ship by getting lucky and scanning the right container and what they found was insane.

over 25 tons of un-cut coc aine, and 25 cases of some kind of "gas"

The large metal trailer container was 3/4 packed with coke, and the rest was contained with a gas in containers as big as a thermos.

Just the fact that something of this magnitude could be found is amazing enough, but do you think the person that was moving it was pissed? I'm sure he's no longer living after the "boss" got ahold of that info.

500 million dollars is alot of drug money, and that is one container. Can you imagine how many containers come into this country un-checked?

It doesn't suprise me that overseas all their money has trace amounts, for all we know, columbia is shipping drugs over there just as much as over here.

****On a side note, i've been having a hard time finding any info on that bust. If anyone lives in florida or has a link to the news story, could you send it to me? My curiosity begets me.

If you truely want to see your money go up in smoke, just use banknotes instead of Rizlas to roll a left-handed cigarette...at least it destroys the evidence in the process *cough* *splutter*


(mod note: not intentionally advocating substance use or methods...)

[edit on 10-1-2007 by timski]

I'm not surprised at all to be honest.

Because of where I live and the people I know, I can get hold of a gram of strong coke for £20(For those who do not know the prices, that's very cheap up to what it was 3 years ago. Used to be £40per gram and that wasn't very good stuff either.) Most of the people I know(Including my parents) take it/have taken it and I myself have dabbled with it on occasion. I just don't find the article that shocking to be honest. It's more widespread than most people realise. At least in the UK it is, not sure about the rest of the world.

I wouldn't worry about handling the notes though, there's only a slight trace of coke on them - 335 micrograms was the highest average for a country(Spain) in Europe 2003. It might be double that today though if you take in the rate of new users to account.

www.abc.net.au...

Silly me, and here I thought the banks laundered the money for the drug trade.

Legalize recreational drug use and we will see just how many banks, corporations and spy agencies are engaged in the massive annual profit.
Treat addiction as a disease and not a criminal or moral failing and the toxic social issues associated with it will be halved.

That would expose the real people involved in cross border transport of large amounts.

The opium trade in Afghanistan has gone up by 40% since the war, but it's not being funneled into the legal avenues. Legalization would eliminate much of the funding for arms.

The desire to alter one's state of consciousness is an appetite like hunger or thirst. Why else would kid's spin in nausea inducing circles and get addicted to sugar?

Originally posted by DrLeary
It makes you cocky, strong, fearless and energetic, so is a big help to those who don't naturally have these "qualities".

For about 20 minutes, then you have to do more and more or you feel like crap and feel very unmotivated. After a while it doesn't work anymore and you just have a sore, stuffy nose and alot less money. Coke sucks, well all stimulants suck but coke is worthless. But yeah, it's showing up on money is probably more due to people rolling up the bill and snorting with it than it being placed next to kilos...

I don't think anyone has mentioned this but I think a major contributor to the spread of the residue are banks themselves, and their counting machines. They are constantly shuffling the bills. . .

We should treat drug addiction the same as alcoholism or smoking.

If you feel I am taking this thread off topic, please feel free to slap me

If drugs were legalised, they could be taxed and the money made could be spent on rehabilitation and education programs of the dangers of addictive substances. Education such as telling youngsters that if they do pop a pill, make sure they drink at least a pint of water an hour and no more than 2, as drinking lots of water is just as deadly.
I can't find a link for it, but i'm sure UK readers will remember the image of Leah Betts who died after taking a pill. The governments message was "Ecstasy can kill", when really it should have been an educational message on the dangers of drinking to little or too much whilst under the influence. that would save more lifes. Couldn't find a link of Leah Betts over-hydrating, but here's a link about someone who suffered a similar fate. She would have survived with education.

www.lies.com...

If drugs were legal they would also be pure, without all the extra and sometimes deadly substances dealers put in their gear to make themselves more money. Heroin addicts would know how strong their gear would be, which would immensly cut the rate of overdoses (the more you take opium, the stronger your resistance becomes, all it takes is for an addict to use the same amount they're used to of different gear without realising it's stronger and it's goodnight)

It would also bring much needed revenue to countries like Afghanistan if the trade was correctly policed.

The least we can do in the UK is have the same machines they use in Amsterdam where you can check how polluted your drugs are by putting them under a scanner. That would save a few people a trip to hospital.

27jd: A 20 minute high is less than a good line and most people take between 2-4 at a time. Usually people time when they take it so they don't feel like crap.