Cocaine poisonings in Denmark have more than doubled in less than a last decade, a phenomenon ascribed to the extraordinary purity of the drug peddled at street level, Danish Radio reported.
In 2014, 229 people were treated for a cocaine poisoning, but in 2020, wholly 544 people had ingested cocaine that ended up poisoning them, according to the Danish Health and Medicines Authority.
Allan Bach, chief emergency physician the Central Jutland Region Hospital described the typical symptoms as motor restlessness, hallucinations, psychosis, paranoia and in worst cases even cardiac arrest.
Since 2015, the purity of cocaine – and thus the strength – has more than tripled from around 20 percent to 67 percent in 2021. In most cases, crushed substances known as “fillers” are added either to enhance the effect of cocaine itself or simply increase the amount of powder. The most frequently measured additives are: sugar, caffeine, paracetamol and painkillers. The share of “fillers” has therefore dropped markedly.
“For a number of years, we have observed more samples of cocaine, where you really just get the drug completely undiluted from South America,” Christian Lindholst, head of department at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University, told Danish Radio.
According to him, cocaine purity of similar levels was last measured in the early 90s. In addition to higher potency, it also leads to stronger addiction.
“From a health perspective, it is not so good that the drugs become cleaner, because we see a tendency for more young people to seek help to get out of a cocaine addiction. It coincides with the increase in purity,” Lindholst mused.
Apart from higher average strength, chief consultant at the National Board of Health Kari Grasaasen pointed out massive fluctuations in purity as yet another factor contributing to the poisonings – with purity see-sawing between 14 and 90 percent.
“It is dangerous when the drug is stronger, because there is a greater risk of poisoning. The variation also means something, because you do not really know what strength is when you take it,” Kari Grasaasen said.
East Jutland Police's theory is that the high purity of street cocaine is a sales ploy for the pushers.
“We have a theory that you turn on quality. In this way, there is also a battle in the market to have the best quality of the sold goods,” Lennart Rosenberg Glerup of East Jutland Police said.
“We have a theory that you turn on quality. In this way, there is also a battle in the market to have the best quality of the sold goods,” Lennart Rosenberg Glerup of East Jutland Police said.