Posted on 12/21/2009 3:11:40 PM PST by Reaganesque
Cocaine's a hell of a drug, and even more so when laced with another drug that's commonly used to deworm opossums. Federal agents have found that 69 percent of cocaine shipments seized entering the United States contain levamisole, a veterinary drug linked to serious weakening of the immune system in humans. Here's the real funny part: no one knows why.
This comes from a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the immune system condition, known as agranulocytosis. The paper tracks 21 cases from New Mexico and Washington State linked to cocaine, including one death, but cautions that many more cases have probably gone under the radar of public health officials.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also noted that 69 percent of cocaine shipments seized as of July 2009 contained levamisole. The CDC has since launched a national surveillance effort to continue monitoring the levamisole link to cocaine.
Perhaps as a sign of the times, the toxicology report from the death of DJ AM in August revealed that the celebrity's body contained both cocaine and levamisole, along with a lethal cocktail of other drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Benadryl.
If you were looking for a chance to kick the cocaine habit, now seems as good a time as any -- especially with a possible cocaine vaccine on the horizon. But we'd advise opossum owners to avoid cocaine as a substitute for deworming their pet.
>>Federal agents have found that 69 percent of cocaine shipments seized entering the United States contain levamisole, a veterinary drug linked to serious weakening of the immune system in humans. Here’s the real funny part: no one knows why. <<
If levamisole is a white powder, then I know why.
The moron cocaine users won’t care what’s going up their nose as long as they get their fix. Even if this news is trumpeted across the nation it won’t change even one of them.
“But we’d advise opossum owners to avoid cocaine as a substitute for deworming their pet.”
....as opossum’s may find it difficult to play dead after snorting cocaine.....
LOL
Oh dear, that deworming drug could hurt them...oh wait, they’re snorting COCAINE!
If it looks and tastes like coke, then YOU KNOW WHY?
Well, at least US drug addicts will be free of ring and tape worms when they eventually die from their habitual use of COCAINE!!
—
Well, We are a compassionate nation, even drug dealers try and help out .. wow, what a country!
>> If it looks and tastes like coke, then YOU KNOW WHY? <<
If stricknine tasted and looked like coke you would see fewer coke users....
Why would anyone want to de-worm an opossum?
The answer to “why” is probably that it is inert as far as cocaine snorters can tell, but confusing to drug-sniffing dogs. It has to be cut with something, and white powders are cheap and plentiful — cornstarch, baking soda, confectioner’s sugar. Levimasole is obviously not the cheapest snortable white powder available, so there has to be a very specific reason it’s being used so widely.
I am so confused.
Just why is it that possums need to be de-wormed?
I never ever attempted to deworm local opossums or raccoons, sounds like fun.. did find a big dead one at the bottom of the pool once tho.. not too many around lately.. probably got squashed from trying to snort the white lines in the street..
I’ve handled a lot of home vet jobs but I’ve never yet had to worm a possum!
...and in other news, people deworm opossums? For God’s sake, why? I just want the damn things out of my garage and wood pile.
My opinion is that it intensifies the high. But your analysis is excellent too.
Might be an interesting way of backsearching drug records to get ship-to addresses of large quantities of the de-worming med.
Then send in the Apaches to clean out the cockroach nests!
Can’t dealers find some type of inert white powder to cut it?
Discussion: It is unknown why pharmaceutically active agents are added to the cocaine supply; it is possible that cocaine producers or suppliers think that the agents enhance the drug’s effects or attenuate its side effects. Cocaine achieves its psychoactive effects by increasing dopamine concentrations in the euphoric centers of the brain, and animal studies have found that levamisole also increases dopamine levels in these regions (5). We speculate that levamisole may potentiate the euphoric effects of cocaine by further increasing brain dopamine levels.
Agranulocytosis After Consumption of Cocaine Adulterated With Levamisole
http://www.annals.org/content/150/4/287.full
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