We've seen some coke heads practically descend into a zombie-like state where they become completely devoid of normal human emotion and only fixate on their next fit like they were in a George Romero movie looking for brains (pure, uncut Bolivian marching brains). Well, now coke heads may have rotten flesh to match the creepy undead look in their glassy eyes. How chic!
Scientists warn that 80 percent of the U.S. cocaine supply now contains levamisole, that's up from only 10 percent a few years ago. The drug, which is a de-worming agent used in sheep and cattle, is now used to cut the majority of cocaine that finds it ways to American borders.
Problem is that it's not approved for human use and may actually rot your skin.
From Yahoo! News:
In a report in the June 1 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, [Dr. Ghinwa] Dumyati and doctors from the University of Rochester Medical Center discuss two cases involving women with a history of cocaine use who came to the hospital for help when they noticed purplish plaques on their cheeks, earlobes, legs, thighs and buttocks.The condition is treatable, and obviously if you stop shoving any white powder some guy sells you in a club up your nose the splotches should subside on their own.Their profiles were typical of toxicity with levamisole, the doctors reported.
...
In the new report, the doctors concluded, based on the women's symptoms, that cocaine laced with levamisole cannot only cause problems with white blood cells -- a problem previously reported -- but also death of the skin's outer layer. They said that physicians should suspect cocaine abuse when they see patients with skin lesions caused by tissue death.
So much for the stereotype that cocaine is the most glamorous of drugs. Now, not only is it the drug of choice of one Jersey Shore castmate, but it is cut with a drug that farmers shove in cows to get rid of worms and could literally rot your flesh.
Amy Winehouse's face was not available for comment.
[Yahoo: Contaminated Cocaine Can Cause Flesh to Rot via Gawker]
