Tests show dealers adulterating illegal drugs

Drugs for sale on Irish streets are being mixed with cancer treatment drugs, anaesthetics used by dentists, and medicines used…

Drugs for sale on Irish streets are being mixed with cancer treatment drugs, anaesthetics used by dentists, and medicines used in the treatment of impotence and acute heart disease, scientific analysis of major Garda drug seizures has revealed.

Tests on the drugs, performed by the Forensic Science Laboratory, Dublin, have also revealed that some of the cocaine seized contained phenacetin, a pain killer which has been taken off the market in some countries following fears that it was linked to kidney failure.

Test results also reveal the extent to which drug dealers cut, or dilute, drugs to increase profits. Some cocaine tested at the laboratory had been mixed with other agents to such an extent that it contained just 8 per cent cocaine. Much of the amphetamine for sale here contained just 1 per cent amphetamine, a synthetic stimulant.

Dr Daniel O'Driscoll, head of the drugs section at the laboratory, said cocaine seizures tested at his facility have had purity levels of between 8 per cent and 77 per cent, with most seizures being in the 20 per cent to 35 per cent range. According to Dr O'Driscoll the most frequent agents mixed with cocaine are lignocaine, benzocaine and procaine; three substances usually used by dentists as local anaesthetics.

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Lignocaine is also used to treat patients with irregular heart beat following heart attack or heart surgery and has been used in the treatment of bladder cancer. Seized cocaine has also been found to contain mannitol, a sweetener widely used in the food industry.

Gardaí believe drug dealers are mixing dentistry anaesthetics with cocaine because the drugs lend to the apparent purity of cocaine when it is being offered for sale. Cocaine users buying from street dealers they do not know often dab a minute portion of cocaine onto their gums to assess purity.

If the drug numbs their gum it indicates purity. The dental anaesthetics would have a similar numbing effect and, as such, would help secure a sale.

The purity of heroin being offered for sale here ranges from 15 per cent to 65 per cent, according to the laboratory. Most seizures are between 25 per cent and 45 per cent pure. The laboratory has found drugs used as mixing agents with heroin include noscapine and papaverine.

Noscapine is most commonly used as a cough suppressant but is also used to treat some cancers. Papaverine is used to improve blood flow in patients with circulatory problems and in the treatment of impotence in men. Dr O'Driscoll said amphetamine is rarely offered for sale here above 10 per cent purity and levels of purity often range between 1 per cent to 2 per cent. It was most commonly cut with lactose, glucose, mannitol and caffeine.

His laboratory had encountered 600 different types of ecstasy tablets since the drug first became popular over a decade ago.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times