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There’s a worm in my cocaine?
Hey party people. A public health warning has gone out that levamisole has been showing up in cocaine increasingly in the last few years, since at least 2002. It’s being found in “most” cocaine in North America (some reports are saying 90% of all cocaine and crack).
Among other hard-to-pronounce things, Levamisole is an immunomodulator. That means it reduces the white blood cells in your body. It is used to de-worm livestock and fish. Yum.
So what the heck is it doing in my powder?
The fact that there’s junk in your drugs isn’t anything new. There’s always been stuff cut with drugs. Cocaine has been cut with everything from acetaminophen (Aspirin) to methylphenidate (Ritalin). We are living in an era where E and MDMA no longer mean the same thing. You could even say it’s normal for cocaine to have some adverse side-effects from the adulterants themselves, or the interaction between them and cocaine, ranging from stomach upset to having to run to the bathroom. Bump dump anyone? There is no clear answer as to why levamisole is the adulterant-of-choice at present.
However, many of the symptoms from Levamisole are very specific and kind of freaky: high fever; chills; lung infections; sores inside your butt and mouth (that won’t go away); and mystery bruises that appear on hands, feet and ears.
Because it’s an illegal drug and there is stigma around cocaine use, folks aren’t telling their doctors. Some people have been misdiagnosed. The correct diagnosis is called agranulocytosis, a blood disorder that kills off white blood cells needed for proper immune system function. It can be treated if diagnosed properly. If left untreated, it can worsen and even cause death. It’s critical that folks are honest with their health care providers for it to be treated properly.
Can you tell if your powder has Levamisole in it? Not unless you show symptoms – and not everyone does. There isn’t enough data on why this is. The lab procedures and standards needed to study a sample are inaccessible to the general public and the fact that it’s illegal make this sort of research study very hard to conduct even in a lab setting.
Within the research community there are different numbers coming out of different reports as to just how much levamisole is in what percentage of coke and how many people present symptoms. Some of it is exaggerated, some of it more accurate. Not everyone who is using coke is getting sick. Some people are.
Without consistent findings, we must turn to you, dear readers. Community knowledge is the cornerstone of harm reduction, after all.
- What are YOU experiencing?
- What side-affects have your or your friends experienced?
- What could this mean for guys who are POZ if levamisole attacks the body’s immune system?
- If it is in as much cocaine as some are saying, what can we do to reduce the harm from this wormy de-worming agent?
For more information, you can check out Levamicoke – a new campaign started by the Toronto Research Group on Drug Use. You can check it out at mobilerevolutions.org/Levamicoke/.
Blow it out your ass or up your nose, and don’t share your straws, bitches!
Chill.
