10 November 2024 , 07:33
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A dangerous drug with unpredictable effects is being sold to Liverpool teenagers, say city experts.
"Pink cocaine" has featured in media reports in recent weeks after it was reportedly found in Liam Payne’s system when the One Direction star fell to his death from an Argentinian hotel balcony.
The ECHO understands the misleadingly-named drug, which gets its colouring from food dye, is now being sold to the city’s youngsters on Snapchat. Abigail Wilson, a lead clinical pharmacist with Liverpool’s We Are With You, said the substance is a “misnomer” because, despite what the name would suggest, it rarely contains cocaine.
She said: “You don’t know what is in it. It is not like a prescription from the chemist. There is no regulation and nobody checks it to make sure what is in there is what it says on the tin. You’re never buying something you know about.
"But ketamine is usually always the base of the drug and it has become a lot more available and cheaper, (hence) the emergence in popularity. Cutting it with other drugs is something that will happen naturally moving forward and that’s where pink cocaine comes into play.”
Abigail explained tpink cocaine is mostly made up of ketamine and, more often than not, mixed with class A drugs MDMA, 2C-B and sometimes benzodiazepines and caffeine. Professionals have labelled it as a “Russian roulette” type drug due to its cocktail nature.
Pink cocaine mostly comes in powder form, to be snorted or mixed with alcohol, but has been sold in capsules and as a liquid. It is very rarely ever injected. The effect, as Abigail explained, “very much” depends on what the components are.
She added: “One thing we do find is when people take something labelled cocaine, they are expecting the cocaine type of effects. An alertness, a buzz - quite a short effect. Whereas they are probably taking it, with the ketamine base, and this is a ‘downer’. So this would make you feel quite dizzy and chilled and can cause you to hallucinate and have significant problems with your movements.
Abigail Wilson is WithYou’s Lead Clinical Pharmacist(Image: We Are With You)
“If it is mixed with other drugs, it can affect your heart rate and your breathing and can be very, very damaging. It can be cut with a number of drugs that either have a complementary effect or your body can find it very difficult to handle, causing more harm in the long run.”
Abigail said it is very hard to pinpoint where the drugs are coming from but knows “the internet is a big place where people go to buy it”. It is thought the drugs are mostly being sold on Snapchat and this is because of the age demographic using pink cocaine.
A Snapchat spokesperson said: "Criminals have no place on Snapchat and using the platform to buy or sell drugs is strictly against our rules. We use advanced technology to detect and remove any drug-related content and participating accounts, work extensively with law enforcement and continue to evolve our service to help keep our community safe.”
Earlier this year, in July, Ryan Edwards, of Garmoyle Road, Liverpool, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for being concerned in the supply of MDMA, cocaine, and other class A drugs relating to 2-C (pink cocaine) and ketamine. The 29-year-old’s case related to online social media drug dealing.
Abigail said: “Ketamine-based drugs tend to be quite cheap and therefore make it more accessible for younger people, who probably don’t have the vastest of incomes, to access. Particularly teenagers.”
Ellie Halfpenny, also from We Are With You, a support service in Liverpool’s city centre, said the industry is in the process of “differentiating between pink cocaine issues and ketamine issues”. However, anecdotally, she said ketamine itself is a “big problem in Liverpool” and there is a “slight rise in young people using it again”.
She added: “Not directly related to pink cocaine, but with ketamine and cannabis, we do see people, more in the minority, as young as 11 using those drugs.” Ketamine is an anaesthetic used by doctors and vets to relieve pain and induce loss of consciousness. It was made an illegal Class B recreational drug, also known by the names Ket and Special K, in January 2005.
When taken, the drug reduces sensations in the body, which puts people at risk of injuring themselves. At high doses, the drug can cause people to experience feelings of dissociation, also known as a ’k-hole’. Merseyside Police told the ECHO it is “aware of the existence of pink cocaine” and has seen cases within the region.
Police Warning
The force, urged people to “think twice” before taking the drugs. A spokesperson added: “It is not only illegal to buy or sell drugs, but taking illegal substances can also be very dangerous and potentially fatal. People taking any form of illegal drugs don’t know what’s in them, where they’ve come from or what effects they may have on them.
“There are significant risks with any drug use, especially when it involves drugs bought off the streets from unregulated sources. The effects of drugs are not always immediately apparent or can be delayed. This can sometimes result in people taking more to speed up the effects which can have devastating results.”