How is pink cocaine different from real cocaine? There is no medical use for pink cocaine. Are there any medicinal uses of pink cocaine?
What is Pink Cocaine, or Tusi, the Dangerous Party Drug
Without understanding what is consumed, developing public health and harm reduction messages is an uphill battle. Often, what’s inside tusi is further obscured by sellers trying to market their product as more unique than what it actually is. While not necessarily linked to upper class use, it is considerably more expensive than MDMA or ketamine; its combination, colouring, and supposedly “new” branding may have led to its higher price-tag. Despite still being roughly three times more expensive than cocaine (which on average costs $6.50 USD for a gram in Colombia), its lower price expanded its consumer base.
Tusi (drug)
They phone the supplier and say, ‘look, I want a more downer tusi,’ or one that is more stimulating or even a psychedelic one,” he told InSight Crime. Consumers in turn began to ask their dealers for tusi tailored to their personal preferences, notes Quintero. In fact, it became accepted that tusi refiners would add an “individual touch” to their product, including various opioids and the psychedelic mescaline, reported France24 in May 2022. In 2016, Spain detained nine people, including several Colombians, for operating two refining laboratories in the greater Madrid region.
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Despite its nickname Pink Cocaine, this drug does not contain any actual cocaine.Despite its nickname Tucibi, this drug does not contain any actual 2C-B. Despite its name, the concoction rarely contains 2C series drugs. Such dangerous outcomes are not uncommon when individuals combine ketamine with stimulants like methamphetamine, which can have opposing effects on the body, such as accelerating and then slowing the heart rate. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warns that non-medical ketamine use can cause significant side effects, including cardiovascular and respiratory complications. Despite the name, this drug typically does not contain cocaine, and researchers say it rarely includes 2C-B, a psychedelic compound originally synthesized in California in the 1970s.
Colombia’s Infamous ‘Pink Cocaine’ Is on the Rise in Europe
- Now tusi is the fifth most popular drug in Colombia and is a regular on the narcotic menu in countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile and Panama.
- Similar trends emerged with carfentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than its lethal sister-drug fentanyl.
- Pink cocaine often includes both stimulants and depressants.
- This mix of “uppers” and “downers” is sometimes referred to as a “speedball.”
- They can refer you to a mental health professional who can help address your substance use disorder.
Like with other drugs of abuse, you may develop an addiction and tolerance (meaning you need more to have the same high). If you use pink cocaine a lot, the stimulant effect can damage your heart and blood vessels. You may not be able to predict how you’ll feel when you take pink cocaine. But there’s not enough research to know if suppliers commonly put this powerful painkiller in pink cocaine.
The curious drug users, including adolescents, young adults, and those intrigued by this new drug hitting the streets. When used in the context of drug jargon, this might suggest that the tusi has undergone a certain process of refinement or purification. The tusi drug can be cooked up in a kitchen without specialist equipment and sold for a profit.
- Pink cocaine, also known as tusi or Tucibi is a street drug cocktail that is produced by mixing MDMA, ketamine, and speed and is also contaminated with substances like oxycodone and fentanyl.
- The average recorded price for a gram of tusi was $18.70 per gram across Colombia in 2023, notably lower than its initial price ten years before.
- Unintentional exposure to its contents can lead to increased risk of adverse effects.
- While pink cocaine and traditional cocaine share the risk of addiction and chemical dependency, they differ substantially in their origins and effects.
What are the Effects of Pink Cocaine?
The average recorded price for a gram of tusi was $18.70 per gram across Colombia in 2023, notably lower than its initial price ten years before. By 2016, it was spreading across all types of social events, especially around reggaeton and guaracha music, due to its psychedelic effects which altered your perception of reality and psychedelic visuals. Échele Cabeza told TalkingDrugs that tusi started to appear at music events around 2013, priced at around $40 per gram.
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Bright pink colouring was added to make it even more visually distinct from other substances on the market. The media portrayal of tusi as the drug of the elite played a crucial role in socially constructing it as a high-status and desired substance. The origins of tusi can be traced back to Colombia, where wealthy people who had travelled to Europe and experimented with 2C-B (also known as Nexus) brought the drug back around the turn of the millennium. By around 2017 though, a list of increasingly dangerous new psychoactive substances (NPS) began to appear in tusi recipes. A statement by a Colombian drug testing project, Échele Cabeza, warned that until this point tusi mostly contained ketamine, MDMA and amphetamine. It appeared the drug was being made with ketamine, cocaine and methamphetamine.
However, tusi reached its peak popularity around 2012, after a popular news outlet presented 2C-B as the favourite of Bogotá’s “elite,” claiming it was the favourite substance of models, actors, and even politicians. From the elite clubs of Bogotá to European festivals, a peculiar pink powder has made waves across the globe. “I consider it the great ‘merchandising’ product of drugs in Colombia and maybe even in Latin America and the world.”
As tusi became more widespread, cheaper, and accessible to different socioeconomic groups, its connection with elite status diminished. Please support our mission investigating organized crime. Donate today to empower research and analysis about organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, from the ground up. “It’s a very millennial drug, very post-millenial as well,” Julián Quintero told InSight Crime. The brand has somewhat evolved with the appearance of tusi in other colours, including green and yellow. InSight Crime open source research has also identified credible media reports of tusi in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Law enforcement raises warning over so-called pink cocaine
The original 2C-B has a key component of 2C-B or 4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, renowned for its sought-after psychoactive effects in recreational settings. 2C-B was initially developed by chemist Alexander Shulgin at Harvard University back in the 70s, and quickly gained popularity in the recreational drug scene. The original 2C-B drug shares the same name with Tucibi but is completely different.
This poly-substance consumption increases the risks of drug use, especially if alcohol or other substances are mixed into it in a party setting. Yet its psychedelic effects and “pink cocaine’ branding remained appealing, particularly among youth subcultures drawn to its exotic image and sensory experience. Initially branded as a favourite of the ultra-wealthy, the synthetic concoction of “Tusi” or “Tusibi,” also known as “pink cocaine,” has transcended its elitist roots and is now widely available. Having taken over the country’s growing tusi trade from a captured Urdinola boss, investigators believed he was Colombia’s largest distributor of synthetic drugs. Alejo was one of the first tusi “refiners,” those retailers who dyed 2C-B pink and drowned it with other synthetics in artisanal drug kitchens.
New batches hardly ever have 2C drugs in them. Pink cocaine is a new designer drug. Now tusi is the fifth most popular drug in Colombia and is a regular on the narcotic menu in countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile and Panama. The teenage gangster culture has been democratised.” He said tusi is the most popular drug of choice for foreigners who enter the sex trade in Medellin and Cartagena. This summer, a false scare story spread on social media alleged that a batch of tusi laced with fentanyl had been causing a spate of overdoses on the island.. Users often experience a mixture of ketamine’s sedative, trippy high with the more stimulant buzz of MDMA and caffeine.
It is the “Coca-Cola” of drugs – an instantly recognizable product of mass merchandizing. In Uruguay, the Interior Minister suggested it was a mixture of cocaine, methamphetamine, and LSD. In Panama, a police spokesman said tusi was ketamine cut with the pharmaceutical opioid tramadol.
Pink cocaine often includes both stimulants and depressants. There’s concern that some batches may have fentanyl in them. But they’re chemically a little different and may not show up on current drug tests. In fact, it may not have any cocaine at all.
One faction had allegedly tried to break away and establish an independent tusi trafficking network, cutting out the other faction. Machos-refined tusi was now selling in Bogota, Medellin and Cali, as well as Cartagena and Barranquilla. The following year, authorities in the city of Pereira arrested a leading member of the Machos crime group, a partner of the Urabeños. But in March 2012, Máquina was arrested and, having lost his criminal toosie colombian drug protector, Alejo was kidnapped by the Urdinolas, a notorious Cali crime family. “People believed that by consuming this substance they could belong or appear to belong to elite circles.” Tailored towards high-income customers, it wholesaled for up to $43,000 per kilogram, about 33 times more than the equivalent $1300 brick of cocaine.
It could just as easily be made by drug dealers in the United States, who mix their own, he said. “Ketamine is not a fun drug to most people,” Palamar said. If you or someone you care about is seeking support for substance abuse and addiction challenges, we are here to offer our assistance. With people confined to their homes during lockdowns, drug use became an increasingly attractive option. However, like many drugs of its kind, it poses exceptional dangers.
This variability makes predicting effects or safe dosage impossible. A group that injected fentanyl into its Tusi was even dismantled in 2021. However, by 2017, a list of new psychoactive compounds (NPS) that were becoming more and more harmful started to show up in tusi formulations. Pink Cocaine, or Tusi is a recreational drug growing in popularity, particularly in Latin America, Europe, and recently in the U.S. Officials said it is most commonly used by young people in the club scene.