Want Rotting Skin? Enjoy Some Cocaine

Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 15:31 in Psychology & Sociology

Maybe your need to feel like a Hollywood celebrity outweighs the long-published perils of cocaine use and you just need a little something to push you back over the edge to sanity - if so, crusty, purplish areas of dead skin that are extremely painful and can open the door to nasty infections might do the trick. The condition is called purpura, usually a range of rare disorders, but increasingly associated with the use of cocaine, specifically cocaine that has been increasingly contaminated with a de-worming drug used by veterinarians. The drug, called levamisole, was found in 30 percent of confiscated cocaine in 2008 and 70 percent in 2009, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.read more

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