Cocaine Laced With Veterinary Drug Levamisole Eats Away at Flesh

Cocaine's a hell of a drug, and even more so when laced with another drug that's commonly used to deworm opossums. Federal agents have found that 69 percent of cocaine shipments seized entering the United States contain levamisole, a veterinary drug linked to serious weakening of the immune system in humans. Here's the real funny part: no one knows why.
This comes from a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the immune system condition, known as agranulocytosis. The paper tracks 21 cases from New Mexico and Washington State linked to cocaine, including one death, but cautions that many more cases have probably gone under the radar of public health officials.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also noted that 69 percent of cocaine shipments seized as of July 2009 contained levamisole. The CDC has since launched a national surveillance effort to continue monitoring the levamisole link to cocaine.
Perhaps as a sign of the times, the toxicology report from the death of DJ AM in August revealed that the celebrity's body contained both cocaine and levamisole, along with a lethal cocktail of other drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Benadryl.
A earlier paper unearthed by the Wall Street Journal Health Blog speculated that cocaine producers or suppliers might believe that levamisole enhances cocaine's psychoactive effects, or offsets the drug's less-fun side effects.
Learn More
 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-mystery-of-the-tainted-cocaine/Content?oid=4683741
 http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/11/03/the-mystery-of-the-tainted-cocaine-part-ii-how-its-made-how-it-moves-and-who-might-be-cutting-it-with-a-deadly-cattle-deworming-drug
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/cocaine-laced-de-worming-chemical-236930
 http://sinuscanada.com/cocaine-laced-with-veterinarian-drug-levamisole-is-an-emerging-health-threat-in-canada/