What you need to know about pink cocaine, the designer drug linked to former One Direction boy band stars Liam Payne and Sean 'Diddy' Combs.
Liam Payne's preliminary toxicology report shows the former One Direction singer had multiple substances in his system when he fell to his death from the third floor of the Casasul Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires last week. There is.
Initial reports cited by US media said a drug cocktail containing “pink cocaine”, crack cocaine, cocaine and benzodiazepines was found during a partial autopsy.
It also showed traces of “pink cocaine,” a combination of substances such as ketamine, methamphetamine, and MDMA (ecstasy).
Final toxicology results are not expected to be released for several weeks.
Liam Payne: Toxic drug mixture and death
Moments before the 31-year-old British pop star's tragic death last Wednesday, hotel staff described an “aggressive man” who was “destroying” his hotel room while “overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol.” and reported it to the police.
Last week, Argentine newspaper Clarín published photos of the inside of Payne's room, showing white powder on the table next to aluminum foil and a lighter. The photo also showed a television with a broken screen.
According to the NZ Herald, local law enforcement are treating his death as “inconclusive” and are searching for the dealer who supplied him with drugs that night.
combating drug abuse
Payne and his model girlfriend Kate Cassidy traveled to Buenos Aires to attend former bandmate Niall Horan's concert on October 2, and ended up staying for two weeks.
of calm down the singer opened up during a 2021 episode of CEO diary A podcast about struggling with substance abuse and fame from an early age.
What is pink cocaine?
Since its inception in Latin American nightclubs as a party drug in 2010, pink cocaine, which acts as both a stimulant and a sedative, has grown in popularity in recent years.
According to ABC News, pink cocaine also recently surfaced in a lawsuit filed by Sean “Diddy” Combs' former music producer Rodney Jones.
Combs is currently in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking and other charges.
Jones alleges in the lawsuit that he “carried pouches and fanny packs filled with cocaine, GHB, ecstasy, marijuana gummies (100-250 mg each), and Tusi for all of his employees, from butlers to chefs to housekeepers. “I was asked to do that,” he claimed. [pink cocaine]”.
Pink cocaine is the Russian roulette of synthetic drugs.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), pink cocaine can refer to a mixture of drugs including:
- Ecstasy (MDMA)
- Ketamine
- amphetamine
- 2C-B (phenylethylamine)
- mescaline
- cocaine
Pink cocaine, like other stimulants such as methamphetamine, carries a high risk of addiction. Frequent and high-dose use of pink cocaine can increase the risk of addiction.
Despite the name, not all forms of pink cocaine contain cocaine, said Bill Bodnar, a former DEA agent.
“It can be made very cheaply and the drug can be customized to what the drug user is looking for,” Bodnar told ABC News.
The drug is also called Tusi, which is the phonetic translation of “2C,” and it often comes in the form of a bright pink powder.
The color is reportedly brought about by the addition of colored dyes and, in some cases, by strawberry flavoring. It can be taken as a tablet or inhaled as a powder.
liam payne and pink cocaine
The UK Addiction Treatment Center says on its website:
“Unlike the pure stimulant effects of traditional cocaine, pink cocaine also has hallucinogenic effects. Pink cocaine users report both euphoric and psychedelic experiences, including altered sensations and mood swings. Masu.”
The drug is known to cause unexpected behavior, and Payne was “acting strangely” shortly before her death, Page Six reported.
In the days leading up to his death in Argentina, Payne was reportedly kicked out of another hotel.
An unpredictable cocktail of chemicals
Addiction expert Richard Tate told Us Weekly that pink cocaine and fentanyl are “different from the heroin and cocaine of the past.”
“This is garbage, all of it. [It’s] “Everything is dangerous today,” he said.
Tite emphasized that “all drugs on the street are bad” now, due to the prevalence of the synthetic opioid fentanyl and other high-risk substances.
“Seventy percent of all drugs purchased on the street contain fentanyl.
“If you can't buy drugs at the pharmacy, that's bad, because it's not just fentanyl anymore. Now it's pink cocaine, xylazine. [tranquillizer]It's ketamine. ”
High-risk substance: Ketamine
Ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that is rapidly becoming available as a prescription drug, caused the death. friend Last year it was actor Matthew Perry.
The Washington Post recently reported that the Miami-Dade County Coroner's Office is investigating a series of deaths linked to ketamine in a pink powder, including the case of a man who became paranoid and overly excited and jumped from a hotel balcony. It was reported that they were doing so.
Read now: Matthew Perry's lethal dose: The ketamine crisis in the spotlight
