Tusi, or pink cocaine, is thought to have originated in Colombia in the early 2010s, spread by narco-traffickers. Depending on the composition and local perceptions of the drug, it can vary from being a cheap and abundant alternative to cocaine or 2C-B to a drug that is quite expensive and favored by the upper classes. The street drug primarily consists of ketamine, an anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects, but may contain other stimulants, opioids and benzodiazepines, medicines used to treat anxiety because they toosie colombian drug slow down the nervous system.
Man-made drugs such as tusi are becoming more popular as they are cheaper and quicker to ‘cook’, but the effects of them can vary much more than with plant-based drugs. According to Vice, the drug was first discovered in Colombia in 2010 and has become synonymous with young drug dealers in major cities who make and sell it for use in the country’s late night club scenes and tourist sex trade. Dealers market it on the back of its colour as a high more exclusive than cocaine, and Vice describes it as “more of a brand than a specific substance”. Safety Note Fentanyl test strips and other components of a drug testing kit can reduce (though not eliminate) the chance of ingesting deadly compounds in any drug you take.
- The drug has been identified sporadically in Spain since 2011, and one of the first major busts was in 2016, when nine people including some Colombians were arrested for operating a tusi lab just outside Madrid.
- Porhcer, who worked for undercover narcotics, said that a lot of what the police know is based on informants and what they avail to them.
- In the 1980s and early 1990s, 2C-B was legally manufactured and sold in adult bookstores and dance clubs as a libido-enhancing drug.
- As with many synthetic drugs, it can cause psychological and physical dependence.
- The tusi phenomenon complicates the drug landscape because it has the potential to confuse both people who use it and researchers alike.
Pink Cocaine vs. Cocaine: Side Effects and Health Risks Compared
To make the drug more appealing, narcos started mixing the powder with sweet pink food coloring. Soon, demand outpaced the supply of 2C-B available in Latin America, so Colombian dealers cut the powder with cheaper, longer-lasting, and more abundant European imports like MDMA and ketamine. The curious drug users, including adolescents, young adults, and those intrigued by this new drug hitting the streets.
Was this article on Pink Cocaine (Tusi) helpful? Deepen your learning here.
If you are considering suicide, please call 988 to connect with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. As with most illicit drugs, users of pink cocaine navigate the tension between the enjoyable high they seek from the drug, and the very serious risks that it carries. Here, we do our best to dispel some of the mystique around pink cocaine by unpacking its composition, properties, culture, and risks. Last week, Spanish police announced they had busted seven members of a gang who are alleged to have been involved with distributing cocaine and tusi in Madrid and Malaga after smuggling it in drug-filled suitcases by air from Latin America. A search of their homes in Spain revealed 8 kilos of what officers called “pink cocaine,” as well as regular cocaine and cash. Europe, home to hard-partying tourist destinations like Ibiza, isn’t a stranger to trippy, risky drugs.
What in the world is pink cocaine?
Tucibi has gained notoriety as a party drug, taking the place of ecstasy in nightclubs and raves. Due to the unpredictable composition of Tucibi, even a first-time use can prove fatal. The term tusi itself does not have a specific meaning in standard Spanish; it is an everyday term used in the drug trade and among users. The composition of Tucibi can vary greatly, making it a potentially unpredictable and dangerous substance, as it may include a variety of other high-risk substances such as cathinones, opioids, and benzodiazepines. Without testing, it’s impossible to know exactly what’s in any given batch of pink cocaine (tusi).
Effects
Pink cocaine is pink thanks to food coloring or dye, said Joseph Palamar, who studies drug trends at NYU Langone Health in New York. Tusi lavada denotes a particular type or variation of the drug known popularly as tusi, which is a slang term for pink cocaine. When used in the context of drug jargon, this might suggest that the tusi has undergone a certain process of refinement or purification. Law enforcement officials say “pink cocaine,” also known as “tusi,” has been connected to drug seizures and, in some cases, is being trafficked by the notorious Venezuelan migrant gang Tren de Argua. This article is intended for harm reduction purposes and should not be used in place of medical advice. Always consult your local drug laws before engaging with any unregulated substance.
Before too long, she’s throwing up and struggling to stand — and she winds up spending the rest of her birthday spaced out on a couch. Given the lack of research examining pink cocaine specifically, no one knows how many people are having bad reactions to it yet. In a time of noise, confusion, and spin, we’re committed to clarity, truth, and depth — even when it’s hard. The February and March busts resulted in the arrests of five people who face federal charges. “The person who thinks they’re getting cocaine and ends up getting a pretty strong dose of ketamine may be completely knocked out,” Brennan said. Additionally, it’s reported that a tusi “high” stays anywhere from one to three hours but could last as long as eight.
Before 2019, the NGO, which tests drugs sent in by the public, received only a handful of drug samples it identified as tusi, but in the last three years it has received 150. The pink powder, dyed with food colouring to make it stand out from other powders and usually smelling of strawberry, was called “tusi” because it contained the psychedelic drug 2CB. It was usually sold as a plain-looking pill or an off-white, bitter powder that hurts to snort.
- Those “new psychoactive substances” mentioned, or NPS, have also puzzled authorities.
- On August 10, 24-year-old Instagram model Maecee Marie Lathers killed two people in a car crash in Miami.
- “Certainly, any customer would assume that there would be cocaine in something marketed as ‘pink cocaine,'” New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said, per Newsweek.
- “The name ‘pink cocaine’ is one of many fantasies invented by the police to name things they don’t understand,” Quintero said.
He was reportedly pulled over for a traffic stop and found to have 10 pounds of pink cocaine in a bag. The popularity of 2C-B seems to have grown across the past two decades, with detection in US drug seizures increasing from 2006 to 2015 and seeing an uptick in 2019, according to research compiled in Palmar’s study. Additionally, “last-month” use of 2C series drugs increased from 0.2 percent in 2017 to 2.1 percent in 2022 among nightclub attendees in New York City. “This drug is connected to the neo-drug trafficker culture in Colombia,” Julian Quintero, a sociologist and researcher at Social Technical Action, a Colombian drug policy NGO, told VICE World News.
Why is pink cocaine dangerous?
Today, young people may not know the history of the name tusi and they may be confused by the name pink cocaine, he said. Pink cocaine is also known as “tusi,” but both nicknames for the powder are more about marketing than reality. Experts say it rarely contains cocaine and is more likely to contain ketamine, a drug with very different effects. Over the past 5 years, tusi has experienced a resurgence, especially in South and Central American club environments. Each manufacturer or street dealer can craft their blend with varying proportions of ketamine and amphetamines.
Pink cocaine appears to be riding on the back of ketamine’s meteoric rise in popularity, mostly because it’s cheap and easy to make. But it may also be the case that pink cocaine offers both social capital and a means of escape. With this powder, anyone can project an image of enviable glamour on social media, and take an affordable trip to another planet, if only for a couple hours — at least, that’s the image cartels are projecting. But, Vidal said, we don’t know enough yet to tell exactly where tusi is most popular, or who exactly is using it.
Young People Can’t Sleep Without Getting High
Although specific information on its composition remains limited, preliminary testing has found it to be an ever-changing cocktail of stimulants, opioids, and psychoactive compounds that can exert a wide range of effects. Users and harm reduction specialists say it usually feels like a light stimulant (comparable to weak cocaine or ecstasy) that can cause euphoria, “sexy” feelings, and psychedelic effects or visuals that sometimes tip over into “bad trip” territory. The effects are unpredictable because the cocktail’s composition varies greatly across regions and batches. Cases of pink cocaine being contaminated with fentanyl have yet to be reported in the US, but that hasn’t stopped Palamar from worrying about it.