Flesh-Eating Cocaine Hits New York, Los Angeles (PHOTO)

It seems cocaine has been behind a rash of flesh-eating disease outbreaks in Los Angeles and New York.

Cocaine cut with the veterinary drug, levamisole has apparently been linked to a number of cases of rotting flesh, according to Good Morning America. While the cases reported thus far have been on the coasts, officials have warned that it could very well be a nationwide problem.

From GMA:

In a case study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. And while they happened to hail from the country's coastlines, the problem is national.

As if cocaine wasn't dangerous enough.

According to The Week, the DEA recently reported that 82 percent of the cocaine it seizes is cut with the veterinary drug. While cheaper cocaine can be close to 90 percent filler, it's often notably filled with harmless baking soda. Exactly why the veterinary drug has begun to be popular remains a subject of debate.

From The Week:

But drug cartels in South America increasingly prefer to use levamisole, a veterinary antibiotic normally used to deworm cattle, sheep, and pigs. It's not clear why dealers don't just use baking soda all the time, although studies in rats suggest that levamisole might tingle brain receptors in the same way cocaine does. If that's the case, adding it to the supply might be a way to enhance the effects of cocaine on the cheap.

Apparently not everyone has the same reaction to the drug however. According to GMA, the effects do disappear from the affected once the drug leaves the body, leaving little but scaring.

For video from ABC News, click here.

An example of the potential effects of levamisole-laced cocaine (from the AP):

Comments

[swaybackAlpha]

11:21 AM on 07/12/2011

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[dbrett480]

02:26 PM on 07/09/2011

Who knew we couldn't trust drug dealers not to put poisons into our cocaine to make a profit?

[Newthron]

11:09 PM on 07/05/2011

You shouldn't use your ear to do drugs.

[Cheapthrills]

01:34 PM on 07/05/2011

What's he doing putting it in his ears?

[Martin Aus Berlin]

12:18 PM on 07/04/2011

prohibition creates more extreme dangers

[Sirlarek]

10:32 PM on 07/03/2011

Sick

[StrawHat]

05:34 PM on 07/03/2011

Eeeeek. I am so grateful that getting high has no appeal for me. Lucky? Oh, yeah.

[Josh Cramer]

11:14 PM on 07/02/2011

It's sad how so many desperate and degraded people who hate their lives wind up resorting to drugs, alcohol, and hallucinogenics as an "easy way out" when there is none. It's a personal issue they endure, and from which, they can't just simply escape. Many others also or just partake for "recreational" purposes; however, I sincerely conceive the likelihood that if "intensive" Meditation/Relaxation / Self-Improvement in whatever one's Cool or taboo language(s) (LOL) was more marketed as a "drug substitute" versus a shunning from a conservatory, there would also be less dramatic stuff like this... LOL. I also think that many more people, who are already turned off to certain "norms" and "ethics" from having been shunned by a church for disagreeing about something philosophically, would potentially "see" greater Coolness in an Etheric Trance of Gothic (or New Age Spiritual) Ascension, versus a Hillbilly Crack Pub for Drunken Hypocrites! LOL :P :P :P Though in all practical relevancy, there is some actual Reality to this joke... :) :) :) ~~~ The Collective @ www.Collective.AI ~~~

[OneGreater]

01:56 PM on 07/02/2011

They should just go ahead and legalize the stuff.

[dbrett480]

07:26 PM on 06/30/2011

Drugs are "cut" with many different substances that cause many different reactions. Cutting cocaine with dangerous substances is hardly new; this has been done with crack for generations.

[zioncynt2]

05:45 PM on 06/30/2011

Why haven't anyone posted a pic of a nose that is affected from the use of cocaine and put it out on billboards to show the public about this? maybe they will think twice before taking cocaine.

[hardrain77]

03:37 PM on 07/01/2011

The CIA needs their blacks ops $$

[Yg Bluig]

09:53 PM on 07/01/2011

No kidding. Why is that guy rubbing cocaine on his ears?

[JennyGirl1012]

05:22 PM on 06/30/2011

Wow! Some of these posts are amazing to me.

"cocaine is statistica­lly far less harmful than alcohol... "

Really??? Tell that to John Belushi, Chris Farley and the thousands of others who thought it was Ok to use Cocaine.
Just waht we need, more crack heads and dope fiends in the world.
Get a grip people.

[TreadingWater]

06:34 PM on 06/30/2011

Lenny Bias who?

History started yesterday, anything before that is just old news.

[Dana Seilhan]

01:28 AM on 07/03/2011

Oh, like alcohol doesn't kill people every day. I was raised by alcoholics. If you're a crackhead they take your kids; if you drink, they look the other way, even though you're just as out of your mind and you do just as much damage to your children.

It's not like everyone who tries cocaine *now* gets addicted. People's responses to drugs are very individualized and a lot of folks just shrug the stuff off.

I'm not saying sell it as a street drug, but really, what we're doing now isn't working either.

[patg00]

01:34 PM on 06/30/2011

I'm sure this has been said before, but if his ear is rotting away from cocaine use, he's doing it wrong.

[StrawHat]

05:35 PM on 07/03/2011

Was that a joke?

[TeamSanity]

01:12 PM on 06/30/2011

As an educator I cannot help being repulsed by the lack of editorial attention. Scaring? I think the writer meant 'scarring'. Idiocracy anyone?

[Yg Bluig]

09:56 PM on 07/01/2011

I dunno, man. That close-up of the guy's ear lobe is scaring me plenty

[Hope Richardson]

11:24 AM on 06/30/2011

I guess this is just one more reason to stop taking drugs...

Let the conspiracy theories BEGIN!