Cocaine Cut With Horse-Worming Pill Causes Woman's Skin To Rot
The veterinary drug is reportedly found in 80% of cocaine in Britain. Warning: graphic images.
A former chief constable has called for the government to take control of the production and supply of recreational drugs after cocaine cut with a horse-worming drug caused a British drug user's skin to rot.
The journal BMJ Case Reports has reported on a case of a 42-year-old woman who used cocaine adulterated with a drug called levamisole, normally used to cure worm infestations in cows and horses. Her prolonged use of the drug caused severe lesions as her skin cells died. It also caused part of her gut to collapse.
Tom Lloyd, the former chief constable of Cambridgeshire police, told BuzzFeed News that problems like this are caused by the prohibition of illegal drugs. "All drugs are more dangerous if their production and supply are in the hands of criminals," he said.
"You can achieve greater profit by cutting whatever substance you're selling with stuff that you may or may not know what harm it will do. And if you're an unscrupulous criminal, you really won't care."
Lloyd said the solution was for the government to take control of the production and supply "for all substances, and exercise the sort of controls over purity and quality that we have for all foodstuffs and drink, including alcohol".
"Alcohol may be dangerous, but at least you pretty much know what you're getting because it says so on the bottle," he said. "If that happens, you simply pretty much eliminate the sort of problem that we're talking about.
"Anybody who endorses the current drug laws, drug prohibition, is actually on the side of the criminals. They are giving the criminals this market, and they are causing the health problems and death caused by adulterated drugs of unknown strength and purity."
Last year, Norman Baker MP, then a Liberal Democrat Home Office minister, said 80% of cocaine shipments seized in the UK contained levamisole, which as well as skin and gut problems can also cause muscle weakness and immune system problems. BMJ Case Reports reported a similar case in 2012.
In response to Lloyd's comments, Mike Penning, the minister for policing, crime, criminal justice, and victims, said: “This government has no intention of legalising or decriminalising drugs – they are illegal because they ruin lives and destroy families and communities.
“Our strategy is clear – we must help those who are dependent to recover and we must ensure law enforcement agencies stop the supply of drugs and the organised crime associated with it. There are positive signs our approach is working – with a downward trend in drug use over the last decade and more people recovering from dependency now than in 2009-10.
“Decriminalising drugs would not eliminate the crime committed by their illicit trade, nor would it address the harms associated with drug dependence.”