They are calling her cocaine pink but it is not cocaine, but a mixture fundamentally of two substances: MDMA (amphetamine) and ketamine (hallucinogen). In recent years it has been gaining ground on party nights and its consumption is one of the problems that most worries emergency doctors.
What is pink cocaine?
From the Toxicology group of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES), Miguel Galicia explains that the so-called pink cocaine “has little cocaine.”
In addition to MDMA and ketamine, this substance, called 2cb, explains Galicia, is mixed with others to give it the pink color. Information that healthcare professionals know mainly from organizations such as Energy Control.
But also because in the Emergency Services when a patient says that he has taken 2cb, what the analyzes reflect are, in addition to these two substances, other substances to cut it such as paracetamol, caffeine or levamisole.
What effects does pink cocaine have?
The effects of this drug, also known as “tusi”, are mainly exciting, depending on whether it contains more of one of the main substances or less.
MDMA is an amphetamine whose effect is fundamentally exciting and promotes socialization. People who use this substance do so with the intention of wanting to be in contact with other people, while ketamine is a hallucinogen, an anesthetic drug.
Depending on the mixture, it can promote more socialization if it has more MDMA or a powerful hallucinogen, if it has more ketamine.
However, Galicia points out that, with this drugwhat is sought is to have an effect similar to that of cocaine: increased self-esteem, excitement, decreased sleep and desire to socialize, among others.
What if it mixes?
If the so-called pink cocaine is mixed with other substances such as energy drinks, it influences the consumer's state.
Energy drinks have large amounts of sugar and, above all, caffeine. The latter is a stimulating substance that we all know, which wakes up and stimulates the central nervous system.
“The complication is that when you drink a coffee in a bar, normally the concentration of caffeine, depending on how strong it is and the variety of coffee, will be between 30 and 50 milligrams of caffeine. An energy drink can have, depending on how big it is, up to 200 milligrams. So, when you drink one of those drinks it is as if you had drunk four espressos in a moment,” says Dr. Galicia.
Furthermore, those who consume energy drinks mixed with alcohol, vodka, for example, do not usually drink just one, but may drink three in three hours, “then it is as if you had just had between 15 and 20 coffees in that time.”
Serious health risks
During some international conferences organized by SEMES at the end of last year, it was found that the consumption of pink cocaine is one of the issues that worries professionals.
It is not one of the substances most consumed by patients who come to the emergency room because it is cocaine, hashish and alcohol, but it is becoming fashionable.
The consumption of this drug leads to problems of nervousness and anxiety, and in some serious cases, psychosis. It causes an increase in cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks, strokes, angina pectoris or palpitations, among others.
These are problems largely similar to those caused by cocaine but with some modifications due to its hallucinogenic effect due to the presence of ketamine, explains the SEMES expert.
(With information from EFE)
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