Pink cocaine may have reached the Boston area. Here's what the DEA wants you to know.
BOSTON - Pink cocaine has reportedly made its way to the Boston area, federal investigators told WBZ-TV's I-Team.
The new club drug, also known as tusi or tuci, is typically found in cities like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
What is pink cocaine?
"Pink cocaine is a synthetic drug. Testing to date has shown concoctions containing ketamine to methamphetamine to methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which is also known as MDMA and or Molly, all really serious, hard-core drugs that could result in death," said David Lanzoni, the assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's New England field division.
The drug gets its pink color from food coloring, and in most cases, it does not contain any cocaine at all.
The DEA told CBS New York a gram of pink cocaine can cost between $20 and $100 and it's sold mostly online and through social media.
"We have had some reporting. I do not believe as of this date we have made any significant seizures here," Lanzoni said of the Boston area. "It's not a very commonly trafficked drug."
Usually ingested nasally, pink cocaine was recently linked to former One Direction singer Liam Payne's death in Argentina.
The drug was also named in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in February against Sean "Diddy" Combs. Music producer Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones claims Combs' employees were required to carry tuci and other drugs in fanny packs.
Drug enforcement agents in New York recently seized 800 grams of pink cocaine with a street value of about $80,000. Prosecutors said they're seeing it in date rape cases.
"It can put people into what they call a 'K-hole' where they feel like they're in a blank space like they're disassociated from their body, they're disassociated from their brain. They don't know what's going on," Bridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, told CBS New York.
"You don't really know what you're ingesting"
"Just a few milligrams of pink cocaine can have the same effect of approximately 60 milligrams of actual cocaine. So that's kind of scary because you don't really know what you're ingesting," Lanzoni told WBZ.
While the DEA has the drug on its radar, fentanyl is still their biggest concern. Massachusetts data shows in 2023, of the 1,971 opioid related overdose deaths, fentanyl was found in 90 percent of cases.
"They believe they're ingesting one thing and they're actually ingesting fentanyl. It's a very dangerous game that people are playing if they choose to ingest something they got off the street or off the web, because that one decision, may very well be your last," Lanzoni said.
