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Lacing (drugs) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lacing (drugs)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lacing is the act of adding one or more substances to another. Some street drugs are commonly laced with other chemicals for various reasons, but it is most commonly done so as to bulk up the original product or to sell other, cheaper drugs in the place of something more expensive. Individuals sometimes lace their own drugs with another substance, to combine or alter the physiological or psychoactive effects.

Contents
1 Reasons for lacing 2 Commonly laced drugs 2.1 Cocaine 2.2 Marijuana and Hashish 2.3 Ecstasy 2.4 LSD 2.5 Heroin 2.6 PCP 2.7 Psilocybin mushrooms 2.8 Prescription Medication 3 Testing 3.1 Personal test kits 3.2 Professional lab tests 4 See also 5 References

Reasons for lacing

In order to maximize profitability many drugs are adulterated with substances of similar physical and/or chemical properties. Inert substances with similar physical properties can be used to increase weight. Compounds with similar chemical properties may be used because they are less expensive, or easier to obtain.[citation needed] Other drugs are adulterated with substances to create addiction. An example being the adulteration of cannabis in B.C. Canada with methamphetamine. [1]

Commonly laced drugs

Cocaine
The most common adulterants found in 1998 in samples in Rome, Italy were lidocaine and caffeine.[2] Cocaine is sometimes mixed with methylamphetamine, methylphenidate, and ephedrine, but is usually mixed with non psychoactive chemicals such as mannitol, inositol, pectin, glucose, lactose, saccharin, white rice flour, and maltodextrin.[citation needed] Other local anesthetics such as procaine are very commonly used.[citation needed] US Drug Enforcement Administration and state testing laboratories report that more than 70% of the illicit
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Lacing (drugs) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

cocaine analyzed in July 2009 was positive for levamisole, an antiparasitic drug used by veterinarians to treat worm infestations. This represents an increase over previous reports indicating that levamisole contaminated only 30% of cocaine seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency from July to September 2008. Furthermore, a recent analysis found that almost 80% of the individuals who test positive for cocaine also test positive for levamisole.[citation needed] Levamisole used as an adulterant in cocaine has resulted in 20 confirmed or probable cases of agranulocytosis, including 2 deaths, according to an alert from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Marijuana and Hashish

Though marijuana is less likely to be adulterated than hard drugs are, it still occurs, and has been reported in several countries. In the Netherlands two chemical analogs of Sildenafil (Viagra) were found in adulterated marijuana.[3] In 2008, 30 German teenagers were hospitalized after the marijuana which they smoked was found to have been contaminated with lead (presumably metallic lead particles), which was added in order to increase its weight.[4] Occasionally, cannabis (especially that of low quality) is laced with PCP, particularly in the United States.[5][6] However, it is not always done surreptitiously. Dealers who do so often (but not always) advertise their wares as being "enhanced" with other substances, and charge more money than they would otherwise, even if they do not say exactly what the lacing agents are. Such concoctions are often called "fry", "wet", "illy", "sherm", "waterwater", "dust(ed)", "super weed", "grecodine" or other names.[citation needed]

Ecstasy
Black market Ecstasy pills are frequently found to contain other drugs in place of or in addition to MDMA (abbreviation of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine). Since the slang term "Ecstasy" in theory refers only to MDMA, any pill which contains any other compounds would be considered adulterated. MDA, MDEA, amphetamine, methylamphetamine, BZP, TFMPP, caffeine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and dextromethorphan (DXM) are all commonly found in pills being sold as ecstasy. More uncommon drugs in ecstasy include diphenhydramine, acetaminophen, 5-MeO-DiPT, 2C-B, procaine, and PCP. Pharmaceutical pill are sometimes sold as ecstasy, as well as pills that contain no psychoactive chemicals at all. PMA is sometimes sold as ecstasy. [citation needed] There is one published case of an Ecstasy tablet being adulterated with 8 mg of Strychnine, a toxic alkaloid with no recreational effects.[7]

LSD
LSD is virtually never laced with other chemicals, but other lysergamides such as ALD-52 are sometimes sold as LSD-25. DOB, DOI, and other closely related drugs are sometimes sold as LSD. Several other highly potent hallucinogens such as Bromo-DragonFLY or 25I-NBOMe can be found in the form of blotters. LSD is also tasteless in normal dosages, so detection is only possible after ingestion or reagent testing. For these reasons, it is not uncommon to find blotters sold as LSD completely devoid of psychoactive substances.

Heroin
Heroin is commonly cut with quinine, caffeine, dimethocaine, procaine, lactose, inositol, dextrose, mannitol, and starch. Other opioids are sometimes sold as heroin or cut with heroin. Fentanyl sold as a substitute for heroin
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has made the news in the past due to the numerous fatalities it causes when it appears on the market. An example of this is the China White Epidemic.

PCP
PCP is frequently heavily cut with inert chemicals, and sometimes the product being sold as PCP doesn't even contain PCP or any psychoactive chemicals.[citation needed]

Psilocybin mushrooms
There have been confirmed cases of edible, non-psychoactive mushrooms found to be laced with other psychoactive chemicals, particularly in areas where psilocybin mushrooms are not readily available.[citation needed]

Prescription Medication
As the sources of prescription medication on the street are not verifiable through legitimate channels, misrepresentation of prescription medications is a common practice.

Testing
Personal test kits
There are several test kits that are available online and also sold at some head shops. These kits claim to be able to identify common adulterants in ecstasy.

Professional lab tests

There are services available for testing the contents of an ecstasy pill that can tell the user what chemicals are contained in the pill and at what ratio. The results are then posted on their website along with every other pill that they have tested. The tests are considered to be highly accurate. Their services were at one time free, but when they ran out of funding they had to charge a fee for every pill tested.[citation needed]

See also
Date rape drug Mickey Finn (drugs) Cutting agent

References
1. ^ http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=82e58213-6a9a-4ab9-bfe3-9b4894296902 2. ^ Fucci N, De Giovanni N (August 1998). "Adulterants encountered in the illicit cocaine market". Forensic Sci. Int. 95 (3): 24752. doi:10.1016/S0379-0738(98)00102-9 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2FS03790738%2898%2900102-9) . PMID 9800360 (//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9800360) . 3. ^ Venhuis BJ, de Kaste D (November 2008). "Sildenafil analogs used for adulterating marijuana". Forensic Sci. Int. 182 (13): e234. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.09.002 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.forsciint.2008.09.002) . PMID 18945564 (//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18945564) .
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4. ^ Childs, Dan (Apr. 10, 2008). "Lead-Tainted Marijuana Poisons Users" (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/story?id=4622149&page=1) . ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/story?id=4622149&page=1. Retrieved 6 November 2010. 5. ^ Loviglio, Joann (July 27 ????). "Kids Use Embalming Fluid as Drug" (http://abcnews.go.com/US/story? id=92771&page=1) . ABC News (Philadelphia). http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92771&page=1. Retrieved 6 November 2010. 6. ^ Dowty, Douglass (August 3, 2009). "Illegal drug users dip into embalming fluid" (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/_syracuse_ny_the.html) . The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY). http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/_syracuse_ny_the.html. Retrieved 6 November 2010. 7. ^ "Ecstasy tables containing Strychnine" (http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/hss(md)_3-2000.pdf) . http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/hss(md)_3-2000.pdf.

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