The world just seems to have re-discovered levamisole. It never went anywhere, of course, but stories have started pouring out of LA and NYC—including a squib on Gawker—about cocaine making “your flesh rot off.”
You want some photos of blackened, purple flesh from levamisole poisoning? Here, here, and here.
I asked Dr. Michael Clark, who makes the levamisole test kits—new batches coming soon, everybody—how and why levamisole causes this kind of necrotic tissue damage.
His answer:
The rash and tissue necrosis appear to be caused by deposition of antibody complexes in the small- and medium-sized blood vessels. They produce clogging of the vessel with fibrin (a clotting protein) deposition, as well as inflammation of the vessel walls, which causes leaks. Thus the purple patches, from bleeding.
The vessels and tissue are sludged up from those neutrophils [a kind of white blood cell], the ones that are left, leaking out. Yet, at the same time, the immune system is destroying neutrophils, so they are in short supply.
Remember that levamisole seems to causes destruction of neutrophils via an autoimmune process. Basically the same thing with the small and medium blood vessels in the skin. Extremities seem to be most involved (earlobes are a common location). This could be due to generally poorer blood flow to extremities. I also wonder if the process is promoted by the cold (and associated vascular narrowing). The folks from UCSF who were presenting on the topic at harm reduction reported that this appeared to be a winter-linked phenomena in SF.
The key messsage for most cocaine users is: if you start getting purple spots, see a doctor now. Once the tissue dies, you’ll lose it.
And before people start their sanctimonious finger-wagging in the comments—just say no! don’t take cocaine! anybody who uses a drug that I don’t enjoy deserves the sufferings of Job!—keep in mind that sanctimonious finger-wagging has been the go-to strategy for U.S. drug policy for the past several decades.
And this is where it’s got us: corruption, violence, and doom across North, Central, and South America. So we might want to consider something besides the finger-wagging. Just a thought.
Who’s putting this chemical in the drugs?
I imagine the drug dealers do
@ 1. Drug manufacturers in Latin America. Now, why would they add a relatively expensive cut that bulks up their product (making it harder to smuggle across the U.S. border)?
They haven’t said. But here’s some background and a few educated guesses.
Nobody knows for sure who is putting it into the cocaine or why but we know its coming from close to the source. By the time it comes into the borders of the USA its already tainted.
This is a great example of libertarianism at work. Without a government to regulate the sale of a product between two consenting adults the market forces have found the most efficient way to move cocaine along to us. Hooray for the free market!
Jesus fucking Christ. Stay away from the coke, kids. Disfiguring skin rot ain’t worth it.
good time to quit using charlie.
What is the appeal of cocaine again?
Here’s a thought. Don’t do coke.
Not finger-wagging, just have zero empathy for coke heads.
Brendan: I’m not finger wagging either. I have nothing against recreational cocaine use, I’ve done plenty of *ahem* experimenting myself. But the more I hear about Levamisole (thanks in large part to your reporting), the more I’m convinced that now is a really bad time to party with the booger sugar. I don’t think that’s being sanctimonious, just cautious. And so what if I encourage others to exercise caution too?
You forgot hundreds of billions of dollars in lost treasure and lives in prisons. We’re the finger wagging kings.
Brendan, I hope you and the ChaCha crowd can survive this humanitarian crisis. Hopefully we’ll return to those halcyon days of pure and safe blow. The only downside will be coked-out psychos ruining their lives, losing their kids/families, and selling everything they own.
@ 10. Sounds fine to me, Hernandez. Urging people to exercise caution is well and good.
But saying “have zero empathy for coke heads” or thinking that if we just yell at cocaine users long enough and loudly enough the problem will go away—well, that’s not going to fix anything.
Not finger wagging either but I agree with #10, if you are a casual user not an addict now is probably the time to skip the coke and stick to something a little safer if you feel the desire to alter your brain chemistry.
Addicts on the other hand I have nothing but sympathy for, we have broken health care system and a drug war that makes people who are ill into criminals instead of getting them treatment. Levamisole adds insult and disfiguring injury to an already bad situation.
a good orgasm with a sexy, hot fucky buddy beats cocaine anytime. for reals.
@13, what alternatives do you propose?
@ 14. I’m thinking about it. The Portugal model is a good place to start…
Has anyone thought that maybe this is the smartest anti-drug action the US has ever undertaken? I know it sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, but hear me out- US Agents planted in South America give drug manufacturers the idea and means to bulk up their product using Levamisole… drug manufacturers see an increase in revenue in the short term, while the tainted coke causes a mass hysteria among coke users and coke use drops dramatically over the long term as horror stories like this surface. As demand drops, manufacturers increase their use of levamisole to keep profits up, and a nasty cycle continues that ultimately leads to the decimation of the cocaine trade in South America.
Pretty genius if someone planned this… and seeing as a massive amount of independent manufacturers all somehow came up with the idea at once, I don’t see why its that far-fetched. Then again, maybe I’m just talking out of my ass.
Drugs are not legal in Portugal. Possession/use has been decriminalized. Dealing and manufacture are still illegal as ever. Also they don’t share a continent wide border with Mexico.
@16 my alternative would be to stick to weed like all folks with an above room temperature IQ. I’m aware of how unrealistic that is.
@20
right, because nobody with above-average intelligence has ever in the history of mankind used harder drugs. what are you, new?
Wanting further photographic evidence of this necrotic tissue damage, I did a Google image search for “levamisole cocaine” and this gem came up:
http://ash.confex.com/data/abstract/ash/…
Good. Lord.
Thank you Brendan #2&4
I had no idea since the US government has been known to contaminate pot fields with poison.
If we stop wagging fingers all that’s left is to make it illegal.
Note: I equate finger wagging with educating people about the realities, not exaggerations, of drug use.
@21
It’s 2011! Who the fuck still does coke? Do you think you’re Mick Jagger? Does wearing skinny jeans, that stupid hoody, and listening to Pavement not make you cool enough? Do you need blow to complete that douchey cliche?
You know, I made the “finger-wagging is useless” argument yesterday in the thread regarding lab-cultured meat and everyone ignored me except Goldy, who just didn’t understand what I was saying no matter how I rephrased it for his benefit.
Change the topic to drugs, though, and everyone sure is quick to smarmily declare their own opposition to finger-wagging. Do any of you people ever think things through on your own before you fall back on party lines and talking points? Where’s the point of inflection between “SCIENCE-MEAT BAD, YOU STOP EAT MEAT OR YOU DUMB” and “Oh, I have nothing but sympathy for addicts and we desperately need to do something for them more substantial than telling them not to do drugs”?
As Wikipedia notes, levamisole increases the size and weight of the cocaine crystals. Why not bulk up your shipment when you can get levamisole from the local government at what are probably subsidized prices?
A quick search shows that levamisole is manufactured everywhere and is easily obtained. Much like ephedrine, it is probably shipped in bulk form from China (which doesn’t really regulate what kinds of chemicals are exported…if they can sell it they will) to Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Columbia. That makes sense, as all of those countries have huge livestock industries, and levamisole is used primarily as a de-wormer.
I’m sure Brendan Kiley hates my guts but I’m willing to say that he is 100% right for wanting to end the drug war as we know it. It’s expensive and counter-productive. But every problem you solve will turn into ten more when if you provide cheap and abundant coke/heroin/meth to anyone who wants it. The misery those drugs cause to addicts has little to do with their illegality. Will you make treatment mandatory?
If you’re losing a earlobe as a result of your cocaine (ab)use, you probably shouldn’t be using cocaine.
That’s neither sanctimonious or finger-wagging.
@25
you have won me over with your stunning broadbrushing. not to mention the fact that you are so painfully out of touch that I feel sorry for you. and while we’re at it, you really flattered me, what with concluding I was talking about myself when I said people with “above-average intelligence” and insinuated I could pull off skinny jeans. I was about to ask you on a date until you accused me of liking Pavement. I fucking hate Pavement.
Hopefully, if this means my former neighbors will suffer a painful rotting death, go Levamisole go!
@25
I am with you. You hit it on the nose so so speak.
@4: reread http://www.lp.org/issues/crime-and-viole…, especially the part starting with “Drug prohibition does more to make Americans unsafe than any other factor.”
It’s 2011!
+
wearing skinny jeans, that stupid hoody, and listening to Pavement
=
The incredible incomprehension of Seattle Hipsters as to just how far times have changed.
Read a blog some time Rip Van 90s.
@4, I’m afraid that’s moronic. Libertarians have been calling for drugs to be treated like alcohol for decades. Libertarians are not against ALL regulation. To suggest that they are is to admit to a profound ignorance of what libertarianism is.
It’s only because these drugs are illegal that people are forced to get them in a way that isn’t safe. That’s what the black market does. You have Democrats and Republicans to blame for that. Not libertarians. And I am not a libertarian.
It’s really weird that this is in the coke before it hits the US market. Cocaine is an easy to grow, easy to process agricultural product. The expensive part for the producer is transportation and distribution. It makes total sense to cut the product once its in the US or Europe, cutting it in Columbia or Mexico just increases the kingpin’s costs.
Not saying that the U.S. drug policy has helped, but there was lots of corruption and violence in Mexico, Central and South America before cocaine hit it big too. Sometimes incidents happened because of U.S. meddling, sometimes the U.S. stepped in and meddled because they were happening, and sometimes they happened without any U.S. meddling. [/history prof]
@18 ITA, thought it was also some type of US involvement but then I read “…a nasty cycle continues that ultimately leads to the decimation of the cocaine trade in South America” and that opened my eyes even wider. Never looked at it as a way to totally decimate the trade, just looked at it as another piece of ammo in their bs war on drugs – specifically the war they are fighting against addicts in America.