COKED UP CURRENCY: An average of 90 percent of 234 U.S. banknotes of varying denominations tested positive for traces of cocaine in a new study.
Image: © American Chemical Society
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For cocaine users, a rolled up $20 bill may be the most convenient tool for snorting the powder form of the drug. Or so it would seem from a new analysis of 234 banknotes from 18 U.S. cities that found cocaine on 90 percent of the bills tested.
Perhaps that's not surprising given that the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that more than 2 million Americans used cocaine in 2007, which has been linked to ill effects ranging from debilitating addiction to heart attacks. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, for its part, reported in the same year that 6 million Americans admit using cocaine annually, consuming a total of as much as 457 metric tons in a year.
"Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant and one of the most commonly abused illicit drugs in the world," says chemist Yuegang Zuo of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who conducted the tests and presented the findings today at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society, which is taking place in Washington, D.C. That city ranked highest in the survey—95 percent of the sampled bills there bore cocaine contamination—along with Baltimore, Boston and Detroit. Salt Lake City had the lowest average levels of contamination. "The examination of cocaine contamination on paper money can provide objective and timely epidemiological information about cocaine abuse in individual communities," Zuo argues.
What might be more surprising is the fact that the percentage of contaminated bills seems to be rising; just two years ago, Zuo did a similar study that found cocaine on only 67 percent of banknotes in Massachusetts. "It is too early to draw a conclusion about why," Zuo says. "The economic downturn may partly contribute to the jump."
But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes that other measures, such as pretrial urine samples from defendants accused of crimes, show that drug use, at least in the D.C. area, has gone down slightly—only 29 percent of adult arrestees had traces of cocaine in their urine in the first six months of 2009, the lowest level since 1985. "We know that cocaine prices have gone up significantly in the last two years, which usually deters use of that drug," says special agent Melissa Bell of the Washington, D.C., division office of the DEA. "Junkies go on to use something cheaper."
Levels of cocaine ranged from .006 micrograms to more than 1,240 micrograms—the equivalent of 50 grains of sand—on U.S. bills, and $5, $10 and $20 bills on average carried more contamination than $1 or $100 bills.
Zuo and his colleagues also tested banknotes from Brazil, Canada, China and Japan, and found that Asians appear to use the drug less—only 20 percent of the 112 Chinese renminbi notes tested had traces, and only 12 percent of 16 Japanese yen notes tested bore the drug.
But Canadians seem to be just as fond and, perhaps, a bit sloppier in their consumption or dealing. More than 2,350 micrograms of cocaine were found on some of the Canadian bills, 85 percent of which had some level of contamination, while 80 percent of Brazilian reals also bore traces of the drug.
Whether this means drug use is on the rise or that ATMs and other bulk cash-handling machines—where one contaminated bill can spread powder to many others—are ever more ubiquitous cannot be discerned. "It is still difficult to tell quantitatively how much is due to primary contamination, such as during a drug deal or [use], and how much is due to secondary contamination, such as interaction between contaminated and uncontaminated bills," Zuo says. "Both may contribute ... [but] it seems clear that the banknotes containing 1,240 micrograms of cocaine were used directly during a drug deal or uptake [drug use]."
Previous studies, stretching as far back as 1987, have found varying levels of cocaine contamination, some even higher than the new finding. But Zuo is the first to analyze foreign banknotes for contamination and the first to employ a new method of gas chromatography, which detects the chemical signature of the drug without damaging the actual money, to do the analysis.
The finding might complicate an anti-drug dealing tactic used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other enforcement agencies, Zuo says. In some cases, the FBI compares the levels of cocaine contamination on seized bills to levels found on bills in general circulation, treating this as evidence. "Sometimes [drug dealers] use these studies to try to get their money back when we seize it," Bell notes. But the DEA's drug-sniffing dogs are not actually detecting cocaine; they are sensing a chemical used in its manufacture that dissipates more quickly. "So they don't get their money back," Bell says.
Regardless, it would seem, according to this research, that C-notes are not as popular with drug dealers (or users) as perhaps popularly depicted. "You rarely see them breaking out the hundreds unless they're buying kilos," Bell adds. "The user on the street is going to be breaking out the five, ten or twenty."
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29 Comments
Add CommentHow can i go about extracting that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGives a whole new meaning to money laundering.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeems a bit of a sham study with only testing 234 bills in the US, They only tested an average of 13 bills per area - how can they come a stable conclusion with that... Shouldn't they be testing 200 bills per metropolis area or something.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd only 16 bills in Japan... Come on... Do a real study if you want to publish results like this.
It has been extraordinarily hot and humid here in Texas this week.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I leave my wallet in my back pocket on days like this, I end up with a wad of REALLY nasty, sweaty $20 and $100 dollar bills.
I hope they think about that next time they use one of my bills to snort cocaine!
Gosh, perhaps they should use sterile coffee filters instead. Wouldn't want to get the swine flu or anything.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndeed, 234 bills is hardly a good sample. No credible political poll would ask only 234 people who they voted for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd how many bank notes are in circulation, in the hands of individuals in the U.S., exactly? After all, most transactions are done with an ATM or bank card. Perhaps there are only a couple of 20's per person in circulation...
I find it hard to believe that 90% of bills in circulation have been rolled up to snort cocaine. There is, after all, 10 Trillion dollars in circulation. Much of that money is not in the form of actual bills, but rather just electronic records in computers. In terms of actual cash, on average, there is $1500 in cash per person in the US yet I can assure you that 90% of people do not have $1500 cash in their wallet. Rather, as my econ professor suggests, that $1500 x 150 million working adults ( about 225 billion dollars) is sitting in briefcases of drug cartel's along with stashed away in the vaults of foriegn banks.
As far as the bills in circulation in the US, here is a far more plausible alternative. A huge amount of cash money has passed through the hands of the drug cartels in the cocaine trade. After they have smuggled the cocaine from Mexico into the US and Canida, they return with a millions in cash hidden in the same compartments that the cocaine was once in. And what hasn't picked up traces of cocaine directly from transportation, eventually picks it up in contact as the bills recirculate through the system.
This is far more sensible than all the bills being used as a "straw". When was the last time that 20 dollar bill from the ATM machine kept rolling back up into a tube? (I actually got one as change that did that, once.) And, after all, for every 20 dollar bill used to snort cocaine, a hundred dollars in cash was used to pay for it. Far more likely it's all transfer. Remember, most people don't do cocaine. Meth is far mor popular.
Maybe they should find out what the guy that collected the money has been doing in his spare time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGolly gee, the War On Drugs has worked so well! Thanks, Dick. Is anybody else completely satisfied with how effective our billions of tax dollars have been spent and how effectively jailtime works as a deterrent to drug addiction? Oh wait, it hasn't worked at all? Never mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have to agree. You really can not draw any conclusions from a study that is so limited in scope. It seems a waste of time to even do the study if you do not take the effort to have a good pool knowledge. Let me guess they got there whopping 13 bills from a rundown liquor store in the worst neighborhood to increase the odds of proving the hypthesis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNah. It would have to be an upscale neighborhood. Poor people do Meth - can't afford Coke. In fact, since Meth is much cheaper, it is much more popular. I wonder if they tested any of those bills for Meth? By the way, the war on drugs is a joke!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHas anyone considered a currency exchange program along the lines of needle exchange programs for drug abusers?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this234? are you kidding? how is this assumed to be accurate AT ALL? I would accept that many on average per state, but not the entire country. and only in Metropolis arias? i would expect more contamination there because oft he money touching other money.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmerica supporting terrorism via purchasing of drugs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf America falls because of terrorism, one major factor will be because Americans themselves are helping to fund terrorist operations.
So, to stop the spread of diseases, people should be asked to clean up the bills they use for sniffing. Is that it ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am sort of surprised that this article does not mention the fact that an urban legend to this effect has been circulating for years. That is not to say that there is not some truth to this, I just mean that the article presents this information as being new in some way when the gist will be very familiar to most people. In fact Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp) mentions a 1985 study which made similar findings and the same article mentions that contamination has been found in ATMs too, which all in all probably says more about the ease with which cocaine transfers from one note to another than about the proliferation of cocaine use per se...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJunkies?! Nobody refers to coccaine users as junkies. 90 percent of users are snorting off of car keys in the bathrooms of nightclubs on Friday and Saturday night. The DEA are a bunch of morons. This is further evidence of the waste of $2.6 Billion per year. Get rid of this self serving parasitic organization.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWELL WOOPIEDO! THIS IS NOTHING NEW, MY FRIEND WENT IN SIDE THE BANK AND BORROWED 1,000.00 FOR ME IN 1992 FOR COURT BOND, THEY KEEP IT AND TOLD ME IT HAD TRACES OF COCAINE ON IT SO I COULDNT GET THE BOND MONEY BACK. I TOLD THE JUDGE AND MY FRIEND HAD A BANK STATEMENT,THEY SAID NO IT HAD TRACES, IS'NT THAT SPECIAL MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THE BANK TO SEE WHAT THEY WERE DOING EARLY IN THE MORNING,I NEEDED MINE STILL DO.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEveryone knows the only way to snort cocaine is out of a strippers belly button. Jus sayin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCokeheads are annoying. Ever sit and listen to a rambling two-year-old talking to their toys as they play? They're just like that, but faster, louder, for longer, and they won't let you get away.
"But Canadians seem to be just as fond and, perhaps, a bit sloppier in their consumption or dealing. More than 2,350 micrograms of cocaine were found on some of the Canadian bills, 85 percent of which had some level of contamination..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are two factors that might easily account for the higher percentage on Canadian bills without attributing it to "sloppiness" or "fondness": 1. demographic differences (with less cash in circulation, it stands to reason percentages of contamination would be higher) & 2. usage of cash (with widespread use of Interac, cash transactions are relatively less frequent, so percentage of bills used by drug users/traffickers may be higher) .
In any case, the results of the drug "war" are in. End prohibition, regulate, tax, and move focus from law enforcement to health care. The benefits will be seen from Afghanistan to Mexico to the neighbourhoods of the US.
What bothers me ...more than the tie to drugs... is that 90% of currency we handle when buying cheesburgers, mango lasses, and dim sum has been poking in people's nostrils! I am really starting to like my touchless VISA card!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoesn't Occam's Razor suggest that we should be looking around for one guy with a perennial buzz working at the mint who's responsible for all of this?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisrwilliston: ROFLMAO!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis revelation comes as absolutely shocking if not utterly discomforting. The widespread and rampant use of cocaine drugs in North and Latin Americas has reached a critical stage, culminating in building up a huge threat to the health and stability of nations concerned.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe loss of manpower and the unnecessary waste of lives (young people in particular) must be incalculable. One wonders if the on-going measures to halt the explosive increase of drug users taken by the governments are bearing fruit.
It is a matter of grave concern.
Interesting - assuming an equal distribution of bills (1/5/10/20/100 USD) we have N=2.6 (amount of cocaine/denomination/city). Far too small of a sample for any meaningful analysis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, it is an overgeneralization to assume this highly limited sample set (gathered from where exactly? Banks? Retail outlets? Individual wallets? Police station evidence lockers? At N=2.6, this is critical information!) is representative of the population "all US paper currency".
While this reflects poorly on the research study, it reflects even worse on Scientific America who published this without addressing such basic statistical flaws in the article. I am very disappointed in the staff.
Impression of "deja vu"? See these web pages:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/464200.stm
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/cocaine/cocaine-media3.shtml
The present "research" is saying that the Brazil has 80% of its paper currency, of Real, contaminated with cocaine. But which was the quantity of paper bills examined? A laughable total of 10 ( yes: ten) paper bills. Observation: The Brazil has more than 190 millions of people spread for a large territory. And for Japan with a little territory but a population of more than 120 millions inhabitants those "scientists" (they worth this name?) used a total of 16 (yes: sixteen) paper bills.
This is a fake research, of course.
Excellent point!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishmm. 457 metric tons means 457,000,000 grams of cocaine. dividing that by 6,000,000 estimated users gives something like 76 grams of cocaine per user. that's about three ounces per american user per year. i don't use the stuff and haven't even seen anybody use it in over 35 years, but that sounds like a lot of coke per person, [not to mention a lot of money] especially if it's pure. is this a reasonable estimate or not?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- retired math teacher...
they omit to mention the 234 bills were all taken from Sam "Snorty" Polanski's stash of bills which he obtained by *cough* legal means.. ;)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a federal law that states possession of a controlled substance shall be calculated by the aggregate weight of the controlled substance and any carrier material.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIgnorance or intent is not an element of the crime.
So it would appear that most everyone in America/Canada etc, are in direct violation of illegal drug possession in the amount of the weight of their cash on hand.