From today’s The Tennessean:
A new study just released by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy shows 90% of bank notes from 18 cities have traces of cocaine on them.
DC topped the list of cities where the testing took place with ninety five percent of the sampled bills testing positive. The study indicates a 20% rise in the amount of cocaine on DC’s money over the past two years.
… Chemists at George Washington University confirm the accuracy of the test results, indicating the highest cocaine levels were detected on five, ten and twenty dollar bills.
Doctor Akos Vertes and his assistant Peter Nemes tested bills Monday evening using a technique recently discovered at Purdue University, “We apply high voltage. This high voltage drives the liquid to the tip of the paper… this gives off ions and these ions are characteristic of the chemicals that were on the paper.”
Former Mayor Marion Barry has a theory on why more cocaine is on DC money these days, “From what I can gather from the study, Washington is no different than other large cities but it means a shift in drug use.”
Barry thinks tough times might be driving cocaine use but others say it could be the result of contaminated bills mixing with regular currency inside ATMs.
UD‘s head is spinning. Help her out on this one.
No problem with her colleagues in Chemistry zapping coked up Jacksons. Someone’s gotta do it, and the English department lacks the lab and expertise. Plus it’s always interesting, as on annual Share Your Research Day, to find out what other professors are doing.
But Marion Barry? Has he really gone from the nation’s most notorious crack user to someone who gathers this and gathers that about our drug problem?
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Update: Apparently Barry has. Vertes reproduces the local news segment about his cocaine work.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:52PM
I"d agree with ole’ Marion who ought to know about this stuff.
"Barry thinks tough times might be driving cocaine use but others say it could be the result of contaminated bills mixing with regular currency inside ATMs."
They are using extremely an extremely sensitive technique here, mass spec, and figuring out a way to extract the goods from the dough.
Ain’t science grand.
No doubt chem profs will have a field day with this in the Fall. In the old days they used to make us calculate how many molecules of Socrates’ body are in our own… I’m sure someone’s working away right now figuring out the plausibility of the ATM hypothesis.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:42AM
I think Barry’s angle is that he gets what they extract from the bills. A picogram here and there, gazillions of bills in circulation, and pretty soon you have a whole snoot full.