Palamar explained there’s a whole community called “Psychonauts,” in which people use novel drugs or induce “altered states of consciousness” and post about their experiences. If someone you care about is using pink cocaine or other party drugs, don’t wait for things to get worse. Doctors are seeing more cases of pink cocaine causing dangerous reactions, raising concerns about overdoses. Pink cocaine shows everything dangerous about today’s designer drugs. Pink cocaine’s addiction potential depends entirely on the actual substances present in each batch. You can even accidentally take dangerous amounts of multiple drugs at once without knowing.
Health Conditions
Overdoses are usually caused by the effects pink cocaine has on the heart, but some people also experience incredibly dangerous effects from seizures and tremors. In fact, because this is a synthetic drug that contains a variety of different substances, the risk of overdose is particularly high. However, since pink cocaine is a mix of several different drugs at several different dosages, it can have wildly different impacts from person to person.
This makes it a challenge to learn more about its potential side effects. Finally, researchers simply don’t know as much about pink cocaine as they do about regular cocaine because it is difficult to test. Because it is just one singular substance, its stimulant effect is more predictable. There is no safe way to use pink cocaine, and you should avoid it completely while also doing your part to spread awareness about its dangers.
It follows that pink cocaine may pose an even greater threat to physical and mental health than other substances. Pink Cocaine is a dangerous substance with mild to severe side effects; overdosing poses a significant danger to one’s health. Cocaine has an anesthetic as well as a stimulant effect on the body, can be used for medical purposes, and has been included by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency on the Schedule II list of drugs.
What Treatment Options Are Available for Pink Cocaine Addiction?
By around 2015, it began spreading internationally, becoming more widely available and evolving into the inconsistent pink drug mixtures seen today. Many users think pink is less dangerous than white powder cocaine. Online mentions of tusi have risen steadily since early 2022, with continued concern through 2023 and 2024 as reports of unpredictable exposures (including those requiring medical intervention) increased. Possession and distribution hold varying legal consequences, depending on the substances involved and local laws. One batch might contain sedating substances while another contains powerful stimulants. WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
In its early days, it was an elite drug, much more expensive than cocaine. Tusi was introduced to Colombia by upper-class young people from Medellín who brought it from Europe.
Tusi, the other street name for the substance, is often confused for the synthetic psychedelic 2C-B. Those unknowns — about the substance and the high — pushed Frank Tarantino, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in New York, to issue an urgent warning to CBS News New York. Similar trends emerged with carfentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than its lethal sister-drug fentanyl. The warning system first issued an alert on pink cocaine in February 2023, when researchers noticed a spike in chatter from Redditors.
What Are Pink Cocaine Side Effects?
The drug, which originally came from Colombia, has grown in popularity in the U.S. and other regions around the world. Pink cocaine is a new designer drug. Naloxone won’t affect people who don’t have opioids in their system, so it’s safe to use “just in case.” Pink cocaine often contains ketamine and MDMA, but it’s hard to know for sure without lab testing. Performing rescue breathing techniques and administering naloxone (Narcan) can help keep them alive until medical personnel arrive. And if the mix contains fentanyl — a powerful opioid — even a small amount can lead to death.
- “That was the first time that I heard of large batches being imported into the U.S. as tusi,” Palamar said.
- The type of environments where you might come across pink cocaine may include music festivals or nightclubs, especially in urban areas like Los Angeles or New York.
- Pink cocaine, also known as “tusi,” is a powdered drug mixture that is often dyed pink and may have a sweet scent.
Can You Overdose on Pink Cocaine?
Poison control centers (APC) have reported increasing exposures to pink cocaine in 2024. This transcends mere entertainment news, with this bright pink drug becoming a real problem across the country. Pure cocaine is a stimulant drug made from the coca plant. How is pink cocaine different from real cocaine? It’s an illicit, recreational drug that can be addictive. Are there any medicinal uses of pink cocaine?
How Does Pink Cocaine Make You Feel?
The increase in these deaths has highlighted the alarming spread of the dangerous drug in the area. Dr. Diane Moore, director of toxicology at the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Department, identified eight cases of pink cocaine in overdose fatalities, with seven occurring in the last two years, according to a Tallahassee Democrat report. Liam Payne, a former member of the popular boy band One Direction, was recently found to have pink cocaine, also known as “pink MDMA” or “tusi,” in his system, USA TODAY reported. Pink cocaine is a combination of other drugs. She said she tests each batch for fentanyl but admits she doesn’t otherwise know the contents of the drug mixtures she’s buying.
- There is no safe way to use pink cocaine, and you should avoid it completely while also doing your part to spread awareness about its dangers.
- Even when a user is trying to avoid fentanyl, there is no way of knowing for sure that it is not involved in the drug they are given, since pink cocaine is not regulated at all.
- This means that there is a high risk of them using deadly combinations in the pink cocaine that they sell.
- Pink cocaine can make you feel euphoric and more comfortable being open with other people.
- The pink powder — really a grab bag of different drugs dyed pink — has turned up in drug seizures, prompting warnings from law enforcement.
Receive weekly insights to help you and your loved ones on your road to recovery. No, there are no medicinal uses of pink cocaine, and it is not used for pharmacological purposes. The types of settings where you would be most likely to turn into pink cocaine could be nightclubs or music festivals.
Treatment and Prevention for Pink Cocaine
At-home test strips or reagent testing kits may not be able to detect the full scope of substances included in the mix. Since pink cocaine isn’t a single drug, the effects depend on what’s actually in the powder. Most of the time, pink cocaine is a mix of different substances. It’s an unreliable mix of powdered substances that vary from batch to batch.
What’s in Pink Powder?
You can typically swallow or snort the drug, not inject it. Despite the name, pink cocaine usually doesn’t contain cocaine at all. Avenues Recovery is a community-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation center with locations across the United States.
Common effects
When Palamar first heard of pink cocaine, his team immediately scoured posts pink cocaine tusi on Reddit as part of his research for the National Drug Early Warning System. “It’s a pretty pink powder, and everyone’s starting to use it, when it really started increasing was around mid-2023.” Combining depressants like ketamine with stimulants creates hazardous situations. Side effects depend entirely on which chemicals are present in each batch.
Pink cocaine ingredients vary widely because there’s no regulation in illegal drug manufacturing. Users might prepare for a psychedelic experience but encounter completely different and potentially more harmful effects. This deceptive branding creates dangerous expectations. The name “tusi” resembles “2C” from 2C-B, but this similarity is a marketing strategy.
It’s typically a powdery mix of ketamine and illegal substances likely dyed with food coloring. Due to the impure substances often mixed into pink cocaine, even small amounts may lead to overdose. Many mix this drug with hallucinogens to enhance its therapeutic effects, which increases the risk of overdose and has significant long-term health consequences. It has no safe, accepted medical use, which is why the DEA includes this drug on the Schedule I list of Controlled substances. With pink cocaine, however, you are dealing with a synthetic drug that contains a cocktail of different substances, which can all lead to very different side effects.
Why is pink cocaine dangerous?
Getting help as soon as possible reduces your risk of potentially life-threatening health consequences. Don’t try to detox on your own or simply hope that the addiction will just go away. The fact that it may be laced with fentanyl and other opioids makes it all the more dangerous. At Sandstone Care, we offer this as an option for those who still need the support that our treatment center offers, but would like to continue living at home and attending work or school. This program is often considered a good fit for those who are transitioning from residential treatment to independent living. With this program, you can receive treatment during the day while continuing to live at home.