A powder called “pink cocaine,” made up of a revolving group of drugs, has become a dangerous and increasingly popular part of the club scene in U.S. cities, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and public health researchers who study recreational drug use.

Most samples of the concoction contain at least one stimulant drug and one depressant, experts said. Often, pink cocaine includes ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects, and other drugs including Ecstasy, methamphetamine, opioids and psychoactive substances such as bath salts.

“This concoction is usually very cheap, which attracts people to use it,” said Dr. Linda Cottler,a public health researcher who studies substance abuse at the University of Florida.

The term “pink cocaine” is itself a misnomer, as the cocktail rarely contains cocaine, said Joseph Palamar, an associate professor at New York University Langone Health who researches party drugs.

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Powder With Food Coloring

Rather, the name likely comes from the fact that the drug is sold in powder form and dyed pink with food coloring.

Also known as tusi, pink cocaine originated in Colombia and was named after the synthetic compound “2C-B,” a quasi-psychedelic that was first synthesized by drug pioneer Alexander Shulgin, but experts said it rarely contains that substance either.

“These underground chemists — they try to come up with something they think people will like,” said Dr. David E. Nichols, a pharmacologist at Purdue University who studies hallucinogens. “God know what the effects will be.”

The drug has had a growing presence in the U.S. In September, the Drug Enforcement Administration said that the distribution of pink cocaine was increasing, and that it was mostly sold online and through social media. In a national assessment of drug threats this year, the agency also said that the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico was increasingly manufacturing and trafficking the drug cocktail.

“Ketamine is going to dethrone Ecstasy very soon, and tusi is really going to bump it up,” Palamar said.

Bridget G. Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor in New York City, said that the concoction causes amnesia and has been seen in date rape cases.

“It could be mixed with anything,” Brennan said. “It can put people into a ‘K-hole,’ where they feel like they’re in a blank space, like they are disassociated from their body, they’re disassociated from their brain, they don’t know what’s going on.”

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‘Pink Cocaine’ Leads to Two High-Profile Arrests

In recent months, the concoction has been linked to two high-profile arrests.

When embattled music mogul Sean Combs was arrested in September, law enforcement found pink powder in his New York hotel room, according to a prosecutor. A lawsuit filed by a music producer, Rodney Jones Jr., alleging sexual misconduct said pink cocaine was often on hand during Combs’ travels.

Maecee Marie Lathers, an Instagram influencer, told police that she had taken pink cocaine before she crashed her car into two other vehicles, killing two people, in Miami in August. Lathers is facing several charges, including two counts of driving under the influence manslaughter.

Cottler now considers pink cocaine among the most dangerous club drugs, because dealers and users rarely know what’s in any given batch.

“All you need is one drug dealer to mix fentanyl into their tusi batch,” Palamar said. “They have the ability to poison a bunch of people.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Emily Schmall
c. 2024 The New York Times Company