mmmscience writes "Scientists have found that up to 90% of US paper money has some cocaine contamination, up from the 67% mark measured two years ago. Looking at bills from 17 cities, it's no surprise that the city with the highest level was Washington DC, where up to 95% of bills gathered there tested positive. From a global standpoint, both Canada and Brazil tested rather high (85% and 80%, respectively), but China and Japan were well behind the curve at 20% and 12%. The researchers hope that studies such as these will be of help to law enforcement agencies that are attempting to understand the growth and flow of drug use in communities."
Ummm... the article isn't introducing this as a new issue. Even the article summary makes that clear. The article is about the increases in contamination.
The point of the article is that the rate of contamination is increasing. The Snopes article makes mention of 1985 being 33 to 50% contamination rates. The article summary refers to a 2-year-old study that puts contamination closer to 67%, and now the most recent study puts it at around 90%. So the point is that the contamination has increased.
So the point is that the contamination has increased.
Perhaps, but that may not mean that the cocaine industry is increasing, if it was say 40% in 1985, pretend that same 40% is still in circulation, the now 90% contamination may simply be from newer/more bills touching the original 40%... how old is your wallet? When is the last time you bothered to wash it? (especially since most are leather) I bet quite a few people have wallets/purses/etc that are 10 years old, all with "traces" of cocaine in them spreading to new bills put in them.
What about other factors like ATM and cash registers, the bags the money is put in by banks for travel/dispersal, when is the last time they were washed, most of those are (the machines as well) are probably a decade old or more.
Yes, that's quite possible. I'm also sure that their measurement floor of.006 micrograms has a lot to do with it - I'm relatively certain that such amounts were all but undetectable in the 1980s for example.
And, for the record, I'm not (as the article is) suggesting that "contamination" = "use". The article is making a ridiculous assumption, on that we certainly agree.
I think the explanation is far simpler. Population increases (money changing hands faster), increases in detection equipment so we can detect increasingly tiny contamination, more machines handling money so the machines can get contaminated and spread the contamination further, etc etc etc.
Douglas Adams was right. Eliminating phone sanitizers is a really bad idea. Recall the "B" Ark!
Except, the average lifespan of a paper note is about 18 months depending on the denomination. Very few 1985 bills remain in circulation today.
(which, btw, is the argument for using coinage instead. Coins last *much* longer than paper money, and usually have a fraction of their face value in metals content (which provides some pressure against inflation, for obvious reasons) but that's an argument for another day, dollar coin refusers.)
Ones, Fives and Tens have average circulation life of less than 2 years. Twenties have average circulation life of approximately 2 years. Fifties have average circulation life of a little more than 4 and 1/2 years and one hundred dollar bills have average circulation life of about 7 and 1/2 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Note [wikipedia.org]
So it's unlikely that any 24 year old bills would be contaminating new bills. But there still may be some old-new contamination going on nonetheless.
Lindsay Lohan was born in 1986 when the contamination rate was 33 to 50%. In 2007, she was in rehab, and the contamination rate was 67%. Now that she's out, it's 90%. I think we have established both a geographic and longitudinal correlation.
Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but way back in the late '80s, the Feds were confiscating money in Dade County, FL if they found traces of cocaine on it, based on a theory that only money related to active drug dealing would be contaminated. For reasons I never understood, the task of calling them on this idiocy fell to the Coroner's office. They collected money of all denominations from cities around the US and a few foreign locations (I recall one was London). Their criterion for identifying cocaine was GC/MS analysis. Their summary result was that all US paper currency tested except "SOME" brand new bills fresh from banks were contaminated with identifiable cocaine. I read that as well over 90%. I was finally able to Google a legitimate reference to this information.
Please focus on the last two paragraphs.
From a Los Angeles Times article dated 1994 (http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-13/local/me-62172_1_drug-money?pg=1):
"In its decision, the appeals court relied on uncontradicted evidence that more than three of every four bills circulating in Los Angeles were tainted with drug residue.
That evidence was provided by Ojai-based forensic toxicologist Jay B. Williams, who said he had done numerous studies since 1982 that turned up drugs on samples of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills taken from throughout the West--from banks, casinos, stores and restaurants.
Williams, who has specialized in drug and alcohol tests for 27 years, said last week that the percentage of contaminated bills ranged from 15% in Bozeman, Mont., to a little more than 75% in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The bills he tested contained quantities of cocaine as small as a nanogram, meaning one-billionth of a gram, to as much as a milligram, one-thousandth of a gram.
Williams' tests are consistent with other research nationwide. In one study, Florida researchers analyzed 135 bills gathered randomly from cities around the United States; all but four tested positive for cocaine.
One of those researchers, Lee Hearn, now the chief toxicologist for the medical examiner's office in Dade County, Fla., said: "The only bills that didn't have contamination were crisp new ones that had limited circulation, if any at all." "
In order to achieve this level on contamination, one needs to look to the source. Clearly this explains where all the bank bailout money went.... coke parties for all the bankers.
Looking at bills from 17 cities, it's no surprise that the city with the highest level was Washington DC, where up to 95% of bills gathered there tested positive. From a global standpoint, both Canada and Brazil tested rather high (85% and 80%, respectively), But China and Japan were well behind the curve at 20% and 12%. The researchers hope that studies such as these will be of help to law enforcement agencies that are attempting to understand the growth and flow of drug use in communities.
Nope, sorry, has nothing to do with growth and flow. Merely that China and Japan are better at properly labeling and storing their valuable narcotics and opiates. Given the cost of the substance, you would think the American & Canadian coke heads would be better at keeping it separate from other things. But when you need to carry only coke and money with you... the cost of that second briefcase probably outweighs the amount of coke you lose just shoving money and coke into one briefcase. Being able to do it in a frenzied haphazard manner isn't just how it's done in Martin Scorsese films, it's a necessary skill of coke users and traffickers. I wonder what "essence of G-string" levels respective countries have on their smallest denominational bills?
I would imagine that its both that AND then having that money rub up against other money as it goes into you wallet and then to the bank, and then through mechanical counting machines. How sensitive is the test? How many bills could one "nose straw" collect?
This is, btw, nothing new. I read this same statistic in an article on civil property seizure 10 years ago. Its been known for years.... the police can confiscate any cash you have, at any time. If even one bill tests positive for cocaine, its all suspect.
But its civil court, so no need to worry. They have to show a "preponderance of evidence" that it was used for something illegal. ALl you have to do is prove that it wasn't. Your not going to let essentially being guilty until proven innocent deter you are you? No worries though, its not criminal.... so all you lose is your cash.
And any handler can claim his dog "hit" on something as well, and use that as probable cause to confiscate the loot. And if someone was to loudly protest the confiscation of their money at some "random courtesy checkpoint", the cops can just shoot you and claim you made a "threatening furtive gesture" or were "interfering" or "resisting some lawful order" or anything else in cop CYA speak they dream up.
The point being made was, in some areas the cops use this "dog drug hit" BS as an excuse to outright rob people and get away with it or for intimidation to get people to confess to something else or whatever. They even go so far as to terrorize school kids with these dogs inside the schools. It's a con more than anything else. And it can be even worse than that for some people with phony dog-police type work [aol.com]
For legitimate rescue, I think dogs are great, useful, for most anything else as it intersects police work...starts to get wonky quickly.
Of course I am also in favor of ending the retarded prohibition laws, because they just cause more harm than good. If a 200 dollar day coke or smack or whatever habit was legal, it might cost all of two bucks, and I don't think there'd be much in the way of crime associated with it like it is today. It would still be technically "bad" IMO, the habit and what it does to people, but we as a society would get rid of a lot of the vast collateral damage associated with it being illegal.
Dude! Dont' sniff it! Don't forget "ass pennies". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ass_pennies#Ass_Pennies [wikipedia.org]
"I've been sticking $30 in pennies up my ass for the past 11 years! That's 3,000 pennies a day; 21,000 pennies a week; 1,092,000 pennies a year! To date that's 12,012,000 pennies, 8 times the population of Nebraska. Those pennies were in my ass! You think you're better than me? Oh, you're not better than me. You handle my ass pennies every day. You pick up my ass pennies for good luck. You throw my ass pennies in fountains and make wishes on them. You give my ass pennies to your little daughter to buy gumballs with. You handle my ass pennies every day! All of you! You all handle my ass pennies! Oh, I laugh at you before you can laugh at me. Because your pennies have been in my ass. You hear me? Your pennies have been in my ass!"
The cross-contamination comes from high-speed counting devices in banks becoming contaminated. They then spread the cocaine to other bills as they're counted. This isn't anything new. I think I first heard about this at least 15 years ago.
The article is about the contamination rate going up. The implication is drug use is up. The other possibility is the spreading mechanism is more efficient for whatever reason. (Different machines, less machines? Stickier cocaine?). Assuming drug usage is up without knowing if anything else has changed in this uncontrolled experiment is potentially very misleading.
Which is also very likely false. Money just doesn't flow in that way. On the other hand, it seems likely that most automated money processing machines have been in contact with contaminated bills. And I expect that those machines aren't regularly thoroughly cleaned and contaminate all subsequent bills, which in turn contaminate subsequent machines.
"Traces" has no definition above one molecule (or could be even less if you're into holistic medicine/grin). One bill handled with coke-covered hands or used to snort could contaminate tens of thousands of other bills with "traces" of coke.
I don't know about you, but the cocaine isn't the thing that worries me - I'm more worried about the fact that 90% of the bills I use have been up someone's nose!
I see Plan Columbia has been a smashing success, just like all the other attempts at Prohibition 2.0: This Time Without Constitutional Justification.
That's not true. If I'm growing pot in my backyard for my own consumption it's clearly going to affect interstate commerce and is therefore subject to regulation by the Federal Government.
I mean, think about it. If I'm growing it myself then I'm not buying it from someone else who got it across state lines. We also shouldn't forget the impact on interstate commerce that comes from the munchies. It's a safe assumption the ingredients in those Doritos and Big Macs had to cross one or more state lines at some point during production.
These types of studies come out pretty often, usually with the same hysterical tone. When you start talking about stuff in such tiny amounts then just about any substance can be found. There's cocaine in the air in many places if you go as low as parts per billion. There's uranium in the water. There's the ash of dead people in your air. There's fly eggs in your soup. There's pesticides in your baby's bottle.
If anything, this is more interesting in our ability to detect small amounts of things than a social statement.
If anything, this is more interesting in our ability to detect small amounts of things than a social statement.
Oh well I wouldn't be too sure that there aren't any social statements to be made. After all, they didn't detect cocaine in most Japanese money, so it's not like its the effect of some world-wide minuscule cocaine miasma, or at least its one that varies by location and thus presumably by quantity in the country.
So what this tells me about our societies is that Japan is an untapped market! Oh man! I'm on the next flight to Tokyo via L.A. Though I guess I'll have to practice my balloon-swallowing first.
I am curious what the break down is on the types of bills being used. Is there a preference for $20 or $100 bills? I always preferred the $100, partly for show, but also because they tended to be crisper..
Bill's can get cocaine on them without ever having been directly in contact with cocaine. The most common way this occurs is if a bill has cocaine on it and then it goes in or out of some sort of feeder machine (such as that on an ATM), it can leave small amounts of coke residue that then rub off on other bills. Given that, part of the disparity may be due to different types of ATMs and similar technology. Similarly, it isn't implausible that the increase in the percentage of bills with cocaine on them (as reported in TFA) might be due to some set of subtle technological changes that make it easier for cocaine to spread from bill to bill.
There are so many sources of cocaine and like substances in our society that it's no wonder it can be found everywhere (looking at currency is more sexy than say, doorknobs, and I'd imagine the same level of contamination), legal and otherwise. Benzocaine, for example, is a common numbing agent for oral use that is in the same chemical family. So is novacaine. They just don't have the popular cachet, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if the testing used could distinguished between them. I imagine if you tested currency for benzodiazepines (valium and the like) or SSRIs (Prozac and the like) or beta blockers or digitalis or any commonly prescribed drug, you'd find near 100% contamination as well. BFD. People use cocaine and other drugs both medically and recreationally. News at 11.
I'd be much, much more interested to know how much of the currency showed evidence of, say, uranium or plutonium. Those are supposed to be scarce, really, really scarce.
Snopes says [snopes.com]... true. Wow, that almost never happens--I had always assumed this was a myth. The Snopes article, BTW, is much more informative and detailed than the one linked in the Slashdot post.
Snopes = exhaustively researched articles done by people who take the time to get it right as much as they possibly can, with no need to be "first to post" to get credit.
BS. Snopes = getting ad money to sound authoritative, no more, no less.
I've sent two corrections to Snopes. The first was in a myth about taking caffeine and aspirin [snopes.com]. They had reported that there was nothing about the combination that would be stronger than both taken individually. I sent links to published studies demonstrating the synergistic effect of the combo, and links to common products (eg Excedrin) that pair them. Snopes updated the article to reflect the new information.
The second was regarding Marilyn Monroe having six toes [snopes.com]. Now, I see no reason to believe that she did. However, some of their supporting "evidence" was that Monroe would've had a long recovery and a lasting limp. My wife, a podiatric surgeon, told them that this was completely untrue, and that she's amputated many toes over the years without long-term adverse affects to the patients. Snopes replied that she was wrong and that I was crazy for thinking Marilyn had 6 toes.
So I personally know of one article that presents completely, 100% wrong evidence as proof, and another that had completely ignored evidence that would have weakened their claim. How many other corrections have been ignored or rejected?
Snopes is not exhaustively researched, not by a long shot. Read the site for entertainment or as a starting point for further research, but don't take their word for anything.
Drugs are a CASH business. It is one of the last CASH ONLY businesses out there. Most other people are taking Checks, Visa, and Debit Cards as primary sources of transactions, leaving Cash a fourth level barely used.
I would not suprise me to see this trend go upwards, and eventually some idiot politician will suggest that we get rid of cash. Which will be followed up by some Christian suggesting that is the Mark of the Beast....
My household has largely reverted back to cash-only for our commerce. It is easier to stick to a reasonable budget, the terms of a cash transaction are perfectly clear -- there are no double-jeopardy fee problems ["they stopped the check, then you were overdrawn. You lose"], and with the recent tightening on credit card companies, some of those companies are going to go after customers like me -- who _never_ carried a balance -- with annual fees or shorter repayment periods or day-0 interest assessment or other silly tricks. Not interested.
But the #1 reason to revert to cash is that it is relatively anonymous -- or rather, it is moreso than any other face to face currency exchange we can easily perform. I think it will become increasingly important that Americans can conduct basic commerce in a way that is difficult to tie back to individuals. The cost to gather, store, and analyze data will approach zero, as will the public's ability to prevent the government from doing so and doing so for questionable reasons. Thus, not contributing data is the most workable mitigation.
I'd just like to say that the "War on Drugs" has been a great use of our taxpayer dollars. Very effective. Good thing we're spending so much money keeping people in prison instead of paying for medical care. Yay us.
Cocaine is NOT a harmless drug, it kills people and robs them of a liveliehood at a far greater rate than almost any other drug. It is insanely addictive and knowing a couple of friends who have struggled with it I can only hope for your own sake you never try it.
Sorry, but I could say the exact same thing about liquor. Ever been to an AA meeting? Alcohol ruins more lives than any other drug in the USA. And yet it's legal.
Dude, drug prohibition is bad no matter which drug you choose. Even heroin, as bad as it is, isn't ha;f as bad as the prohibition that tries to ban it.
It all based on the idea that if you make people desperate enough, they will quit. Not entirely incorrect, some recent research shows that people quit drugs almost entirely for practical reasons.
What they ignore is the problems caused by making people desperate are worst than the original addiction. Swiss studies have shown that simply providing heroin at a price similar to what it would be on the open market decreased the amount of income that the study subjects took in through other illegal activities by 90%, in a few weeks.
Its been found they can hold down jobs (much like many alcoholics do), they can afford their habbit, afford food, etc.
Simply put, prohibition is a broken model from the very start. Cannabis is simply the largest (more cannabis smokers in the US than all other illegal drug users combined), and the one with the most ridiculous lies spread about it.
If anyone is wondering about the WD40 & Vaseline, it's cause some nightclubs will put a thin layer on the toilet tank to discourage cocaine use. (It's hard to tell it's there at a glance and if you're gonna do coke, you've probably been drinking too.) If you try to scrape out lines on a coat of Vaseline, you'll end up with a greasy paste.
In all fairness (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In all fairness (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Informative)
Ummm... the article isn't introducing this as a new issue. Even the article summary makes that clear. The article is about the increases in contamination.
The point of the article is that the rate of contamination is increasing. The Snopes article makes mention of 1985 being 33 to 50% contamination rates. The article summary refers to a 2-year-old study that puts contamination closer to 67%, and now the most recent study puts it at around 90%. So the point is that the contamination has increased.
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Insightful)
So the point is that the contamination has increased.
Perhaps, but that may not mean that the cocaine industry is increasing, if it was say 40% in 1985, pretend that same 40% is still in circulation, the now 90% contamination may simply be from newer/more bills touching the original 40%... how old is your wallet? When is the last time you bothered to wash it? (especially since most are leather) I bet quite a few people have wallets/purses/etc that are 10 years old, all with "traces" of cocaine in them spreading to new bills put in them.
What about other factors like ATM and cash registers, the bags the money is put in by banks for travel/dispersal, when is the last time they were washed, most of those are (the machines as well) are probably a decade old or more.
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, that's quite possible. I'm also sure that their measurement floor of .006 micrograms has a lot to do with it - I'm relatively certain that such amounts were all but undetectable in the 1980s for example.
And, for the record, I'm not (as the article is) suggesting that "contamination" = "use". The article is making a ridiculous assumption, on that we certainly agree.
I think the explanation is far simpler. Population increases (money changing hands faster), increases in detection equipment so we can detect increasingly tiny contamination, more machines handling money so the machines can get contaminated and spread the contamination further, etc etc etc.
Douglas Adams was right. Eliminating phone sanitizers is a really bad idea. Recall the "B" Ark!
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:4, Insightful)
Except, the average lifespan of a paper note is about 18 months depending on the denomination. Very few 1985 bills remain in circulation today.
(which, btw, is the argument for using coinage instead. Coins last *much* longer than paper money, and usually have a fraction of their face value in metals content (which provides some pressure against inflation, for obvious reasons) but that's an argument for another day, dollar coin refusers.)
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Informative)
Ones, Fives and Tens have average circulation life of less than 2 years. Twenties have average circulation life of approximately 2 years. Fifties have average circulation life of a little more than 4 and 1/2 years and one hundred dollar bills have average circulation life of about 7 and 1/2 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Note [wikipedia.org]
So it's unlikely that any 24 year old bills would be contaminating new bills. But there still may be some old-new contamination going on nonetheless.
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:4, Funny)
Lindsay Lohan was born in 1986 when the contamination rate was 33 to 50%. In 2007, she was in rehab, and the contamination rate was 67%. Now that she's out, it's 90%. I think we have established both a geographic and longitudinal correlation.
Parent
Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Interesting)
Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but way back in the late '80s, the Feds were confiscating money in Dade County, FL if they found traces of cocaine on it, based on a theory that only money related to active drug dealing would be contaminated. For reasons I never understood, the task of calling them on this idiocy fell to the Coroner's office. They collected money of all denominations from cities around the US and a few foreign locations (I recall one was London). Their criterion for identifying cocaine was GC/MS analysis. Their summary result was that all US paper currency tested except "SOME" brand new bills fresh from banks were contaminated with identifiable cocaine. I read that as well over 90%. I was finally able to Google a legitimate reference to this information.
Please focus on the last two paragraphs.
From a Los Angeles Times article dated 1994 (http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-13/local/me-62172_1_drug-money?pg=1):
"In its decision, the appeals court relied on uncontradicted evidence that more than three of every four bills circulating in Los Angeles were tainted with drug residue.
That evidence was provided by Ojai-based forensic toxicologist Jay B. Williams, who said he had done numerous studies since 1982 that turned up drugs on samples of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills taken from throughout the West--from banks, casinos, stores and restaurants.
Williams, who has specialized in drug and alcohol tests for 27 years, said last week that the percentage of contaminated bills ranged from 15% in Bozeman, Mont., to a little more than 75% in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The bills he tested contained quantities of cocaine as small as a nanogram, meaning one-billionth of a gram, to as much as a milligram, one-thousandth of a gram.
Williams' tests are consistent with other research nationwide. In one study, Florida researchers analyzed 135 bills gathered randomly from cities around the United States; all but four tested positive for cocaine.
One of those researchers, Lee Hearn, now the chief toxicologist for the medical examiner's office in Dade County, Fla., said: "The only bills that didn't have contamination were crisp new ones that had limited circulation, if any at all."
"
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Bail Out Money (Score:5, Insightful)
In order to achieve this level on contamination, one needs to look to the source. Clearly this explains where all the bank bailout money went.... coke parties for all the bankers.
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Re:In all fairness (Score:5, Insightful)
What part of the Iran-Contra business did you fail to fully understand, 30 years ago? It's only worse, today.
ALL USD is tainted by Cocaine.
And by child slavery, forced prostitution and slaughter of innocents. Viva Roma!
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Re:In all fairness (Score:4, Funny)
If that's the case, they should also test for traces of his dad [msn.com] on the money too.
Parent
Given the Cost of the Substance ... (Score:5, Funny)
Looking at bills from 17 cities, it's no surprise that the city with the highest level was Washington DC, where up to 95% of bills gathered there tested positive. From a global standpoint, both Canada and Brazil tested rather high (85% and 80%, respectively), But China and Japan were well behind the curve at 20% and 12%. The researchers hope that studies such as these will be of help to law enforcement agencies that are attempting to understand the growth and flow of drug use in communities.
Nope, sorry, has nothing to do with growth and flow. Merely that China and Japan are better at properly labeling and storing their valuable narcotics and opiates. Given the cost of the substance, you would think the American & Canadian coke heads would be better at keeping it separate from other things. But when you need to carry only coke and money with you ... the cost of that second briefcase probably outweighs the amount of coke you lose just shoving money and coke into one briefcase. Being able to do it in a frenzied haphazard manner isn't just how it's done in Martin Scorsese films, it's a necessary skill of coke users and traffickers. I wonder what "essence of G-string" levels respective countries have on their smallest denominational bills?
Re:Given the Cost of the Substance ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I would imagine that its both that AND then having that money rub up against other money as it goes into you wallet and then to the bank, and then through mechanical counting machines. How sensitive is the test? How many bills could one "nose straw" collect?
This is, btw, nothing new. I read this same statistic in an article on civil property seizure 10 years ago. Its been known for years.... the police can confiscate any cash you have, at any time. If even one bill tests positive for cocaine, its all suspect.
But its civil court, so no need to worry. They have to show a "preponderance of evidence" that it was used for something illegal. ALl you have to do is prove that it wasn't. Your not going to let essentially being guilty until proven innocent deter you are you? No worries though, its not criminal.... so all you lose is your cash.
Sounds fair doesn't it?
-Steve
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a dog "hit" (Score:5, Interesting)
And any handler can claim his dog "hit" on something as well, and use that as probable cause to confiscate the loot. And if someone was to loudly protest the confiscation of their money at some "random courtesy checkpoint", the cops can just shoot you and claim you made a "threatening furtive gesture" or were "interfering" or "resisting some lawful order" or anything else in cop CYA speak they dream up.
The point being made was, in some areas the cops use this "dog drug hit" BS as an excuse to outright rob people and get away with it or for intimidation to get people to confess to something else or whatever. They even go so far as to terrorize school kids with these dogs inside the schools. It's a con more than anything else. And it can be even worse than that for some people with phony dog-police type work [aol.com]
For legitimate rescue, I think dogs are great, useful, for most anything else as it intersects police work...starts to get wonky quickly.
Of course I am also in favor of ending the retarded prohibition laws, because they just cause more harm than good. If a 200 dollar day coke or smack or whatever habit was legal, it might cost all of two bucks, and I don't think there'd be much in the way of crime associated with it like it is today. It would still be technically "bad" IMO, the habit and what it does to people, but we as a society would get rid of a lot of the vast collateral damage associated with it being illegal.
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So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get caught with US dollars on you in Dubai.
Well, that explains something. (Score:5, Funny)
This has to be why people love the smell of their money. Just hold it up to your nose and sniff... and you get a minor contact high from the drugs.
Ass Pennies (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Hmm... so this is why i'm addicted... (Score:5, Funny)
I think maybe the Fed got the wrong idea... (Score:5, Funny)
when Bush recommended an 'economic stimulus'.
So the government should ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hrmm (Score:5, Funny)
I roll up 100 dollar bills to snort up other 100 dollar bills. Its a vicious circle.
Re:Hrmm (Score:5, Funny)
I roll up 100 dollar bills to snort up other 100 dollar bills. Its a vicious circle.
How do you snort your last 100 dollar bill?
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Re:Hrmm (Score:5, Funny)
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Cross Contamination anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cross Contamination anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
The cross-contamination comes from high-speed counting devices in banks becoming contaminated. They then spread the cocaine to other bills as they're counted. This isn't anything new. I think I first heard about this at least 15 years ago.
The article is about the contamination rate going up. The implication is drug use is up. The other possibility is the spreading mechanism is more efficient for whatever reason. (Different machines, less machines? Stickier cocaine?). Assuming drug usage is up without knowing if anything else has changed in this uncontrolled experiment is potentially very misleading.
Parent
Re:Cross Contamination anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
No, the suggestion is that most of the paper money in America has been in contact with cocaine users.
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Re:Cross Contamination anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
Which is also very likely false. Money just doesn't flow in that way. On the other hand, it seems likely that most automated money processing machines have been in contact with contaminated bills. And I expect that those machines aren't regularly thoroughly cleaned and contaminate all subsequent bills, which in turn contaminate subsequent machines.
"Traces" has no definition above one molecule (or could be even less if you're into holistic medicine /grin). One bill handled with coke-covered hands or used to snort could contaminate tens of thousands of other bills with "traces" of coke.
Parent
I'm more worried (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know about you, but the cocaine isn't the thing that worries me - I'm more worried about the fact that 90% of the bills I use have been up someone's nose!
So guys... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So guys... (Score:5, Funny)
I see Plan Columbia has been a smashing success, just like all the other attempts at Prohibition 2.0: This Time Without Constitutional Justification.
That's not true. If I'm growing pot in my backyard for my own consumption it's clearly going to affect interstate commerce and is therefore subject to regulation by the Federal Government.
I mean, think about it. If I'm growing it myself then I'm not buying it from someone else who got it across state lines. We also shouldn't forget the impact on interstate commerce that comes from the munchies. It's a safe assumption the ingredients in those Doritos and Big Macs had to cross one or more state lines at some point during production.
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.006 micrograms? (Score:5, Insightful)
These types of studies come out pretty often, usually with the same hysterical tone. When you start talking about stuff in such tiny amounts then just about any substance can be found. There's cocaine in the air in many places if you go as low as parts per billion. There's uranium in the water. There's the ash of dead people in your air. There's fly eggs in your soup. There's pesticides in your baby's bottle.
If anything, this is more interesting in our ability to detect small amounts of things than a social statement.
Re:.006 micrograms? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:.006 micrograms? (Score:5, Insightful)
If anything, this is more interesting in our ability to detect small amounts of things than a social statement.
Oh well I wouldn't be too sure that there aren't any social statements to be made. After all, they didn't detect cocaine in most Japanese money, so it's not like its the effect of some world-wide minuscule cocaine miasma, or at least its one that varies by location and thus presumably by quantity in the country.
So what this tells me about our societies is that Japan is an untapped market! Oh man! I'm on the next flight to Tokyo via L.A. Though I guess I'll have to practice my balloon-swallowing first.
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Re:.006 micrograms? (Score:5, Funny)
It could just be that the Japanese are just more meticulous than Americans when laundering their money.
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what denominations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I am curious what the break down is on the types of bills being used. Is there a preference for $20 or $100 bills? I always preferred the $100, partly for show, but also because they tended to be crisper..
Cocaine on bill != haddirect contact with coke (Score:5, Informative)
Corrected headline (Score:5, Funny)
Cocaine, ho-hum, what about radiologicals? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are so many sources of cocaine and like substances in our society that it's no wonder it can be found everywhere (looking at currency is more sexy than say, doorknobs, and I'd imagine the same level of contamination), legal and otherwise. Benzocaine, for example, is a common numbing agent for oral use that is in the same chemical family. So is novacaine. They just don't have the popular cachet, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if the testing used could distinguished between them. I imagine if you tested currency for benzodiazepines (valium and the like) or SSRIs (Prozac and the like) or beta blockers or digitalis or any commonly prescribed drug, you'd find near 100% contamination as well. BFD. People use cocaine and other drugs both medically and recreationally. News at 11.
I'd be much, much more interested to know how much of the currency showed evidence of, say, uranium or plutonium. Those are supposed to be scarce, really, really scarce.
Snopes says... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Snopes says... (Score:5, Informative)
Snopes = exhaustively researched articles done by people who take the time to get it right as much as they possibly can, with no need to be "first to post" to get credit.
BS. Snopes = getting ad money to sound authoritative, no more, no less.
I've sent two corrections to Snopes. The first was in a myth about taking caffeine and aspirin [snopes.com]. They had reported that there was nothing about the combination that would be stronger than both taken individually. I sent links to published studies demonstrating the synergistic effect of the combo, and links to common products (eg Excedrin) that pair them. Snopes updated the article to reflect the new information.
The second was regarding Marilyn Monroe having six toes [snopes.com]. Now, I see no reason to believe that she did. However, some of their supporting "evidence" was that Monroe would've had a long recovery and a lasting limp. My wife, a podiatric surgeon, told them that this was completely untrue, and that she's amputated many toes over the years without long-term adverse affects to the patients. Snopes replied that she was wrong and that I was crazy for thinking Marilyn had 6 toes.
So I personally know of one article that presents completely, 100% wrong evidence as proof, and another that had completely ignored evidence that would have weakened their claim. How many other corrections have been ignored or rejected?
Snopes is not exhaustively researched, not by a long shot. Read the site for entertainment or as a starting point for further research, but don't take their word for anything.
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Effect On Inflation (Score:5, Funny)
The extra street value of cocaine being added to the dollar should make it stronger against other currencies.
Drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
Drugs are a CASH business. It is one of the last CASH ONLY businesses out there. Most other people are taking Checks, Visa, and Debit Cards as primary sources of transactions, leaving Cash a fourth level barely used.
I would not suprise me to see this trend go upwards, and eventually some idiot politician will suggest that we get rid of cash. Which will be followed up by some Christian suggesting that is the Mark of the Beast ....
Re:Drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
My household has largely reverted back to cash-only for our commerce. It is easier to stick to a reasonable budget, the terms of a cash transaction are perfectly clear -- there are no double-jeopardy fee problems ["they stopped the check, then you were overdrawn. You lose"], and with the recent tightening on credit card companies, some of those companies are going to go after customers like me -- who _never_ carried a balance -- with annual fees or shorter repayment periods or day-0 interest assessment or other silly tricks. Not interested.
But the #1 reason to revert to cash is that it is relatively anonymous -- or rather, it is moreso than any other face to face currency exchange we can easily perform. I think it will become increasingly important that Americans can conduct basic commerce in a way that is difficult to tie back to individuals. The cost to gather, store, and analyze data will approach zero, as will the public's ability to prevent the government from doing so and doing so for questionable reasons. Thus, not contributing data is the most workable mitigation.
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Good thing we had that "War on Drugs" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legalize Cannabis, not Cocaine! (Score:5, Insightful)
Cocaine is NOT a harmless drug, it kills people and robs them of a liveliehood at a far greater rate than almost any other drug. It is insanely addictive and knowing a couple of friends who have struggled with it I can only hope for your own sake you never try it.
Sorry, but I could say the exact same thing about liquor. Ever been to an AA meeting? Alcohol ruins more lives than any other drug in the USA. And yet it's legal.
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Re:Legalize Cannabis, not Cocaine! (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, drug prohibition is bad no matter which drug you choose. Even heroin, as bad as it is, isn't ha;f as bad as the prohibition that tries to ban it.
It all based on the idea that if you make people desperate enough, they will quit. Not entirely incorrect, some recent research shows that people quit drugs almost entirely for practical reasons.
What they ignore is the problems caused by making people desperate are worst than the original addiction. Swiss studies have shown that simply providing heroin at a price similar to what it would be on the open market decreased the amount of income that the study subjects took in through other illegal activities by 90%, in a few weeks.
Its been found they can hold down jobs (much like many alcoholics do), they can afford their habbit, afford food, etc.
Simply put, prohibition is a broken model from the very start. Cannabis is simply the largest (more cannabis smokers in the US than all other illegal drug users combined), and the one with the most ridiculous lies spread about it.
-Steve
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Re:I understand that in London (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I understand that in London (Score:5, Informative)
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