LONDON—U.K. police have found a new method to thwart cocaine traffickers by targeting the main ingredients used to cut the drug—anesthetics.
Certain anesthetics are used by traffickers to dilute cocaine since they mimic the tongue numbness produced when taking cocaine. Three types of painkilling drugs are now being destroyed by Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) when they are found being imported in powder form.
When used legitimately, the common local anesthetics benzocaine and lidocaine come in liquid, gel, cream, or patch form. Benzocaine is usually used topically and is found in sunburn products, cold sore medicine, and eardrops. Lidocaine (or lignocaine) is stronger and found in more prescription medicines to treat skin irritations and is used in dental procedures.
A Dublin City coroner indicated last month that a high quantity of lidocaine in cocaine was instrumental in the death of a 19-year-old drug user. Phenacetin was widely used as a painkiller until it was found to be carcinogenic and banned. It was likewise withdrawn from U.S. markets in 1983.
Sharon Lemon, SOCA deputy director, said on the SOCA website, “This is an ongoing process. We can expect to see traffickers try to switch to other methods. We know what these are and will be watching.”
Lemon adds that once traffickers are denied benzocaine, their preferred agent, they will have to resort to poorer substitutes, which are easier to detect.
“These will not mask the cutting as effectively so people are much more likely to notice that they are getting a drop in quality but no drop in price.”
These “pharmaceutical” cutting agents have helped traffickers extend their market in the U.K., particularly to young people from their mid-teens to early twenties. After the drug has been successively cut by chain of dealers, its purity can be as low as 2 percent.
Over two tons of benzocaine, which arrived in four consignments at U.K. ports in the space of just one week, were seized. None of the four importers were able to provide SOCA with evidence of any legitimate customers in the U.K., so the haul was incinerated.
“SOCA prosecutes those supporting the illegal drug market wherever it can. But we also want to find ways to cause damage and disruption to the large numbers involved. This seizure has taken millions out of drug dealers’ pockets—money which would have been reinvested in crime,” according to Lemon.
Last month, a U.K. woman was sentenced to nine years after a court ruled that importing cutting agents illegally is tantamount to supplying cocaine.
Brodie Clark, head of the Border Force, called it a “landmark” ruling.
“That landmark ruling gives us much greater scope to target those involved in all aspects of drug smuggling, including those importing the likes of benzocaine,” SOCA quotes Clark as saying on their website.
The medical industry buys over three tons of benzocaine from Europe annually.
Large quantities of benzocaine are being bought from manufacturers in China for around $470 per 55 pound barrel. This is then sold on to customers who mix it with cocaine, SOCA believes.
SOCA was founded four years ago under the previous U.K. government. The new coalition government formed last May says it intends to disband it.
Certain anesthetics are used by traffickers to dilute cocaine since they mimic the tongue numbness produced when taking cocaine. Three types of painkilling drugs are now being destroyed by Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) when they are found being imported in powder form.
When used legitimately, the common local anesthetics benzocaine and lidocaine come in liquid, gel, cream, or patch form. Benzocaine is usually used topically and is found in sunburn products, cold sore medicine, and eardrops. Lidocaine (or lignocaine) is stronger and found in more prescription medicines to treat skin irritations and is used in dental procedures.
A Dublin City coroner indicated last month that a high quantity of lidocaine in cocaine was instrumental in the death of a 19-year-old drug user. Phenacetin was widely used as a painkiller until it was found to be carcinogenic and banned. It was likewise withdrawn from U.S. markets in 1983.
Sharon Lemon, SOCA deputy director, said on the SOCA website, “This is an ongoing process. We can expect to see traffickers try to switch to other methods. We know what these are and will be watching.”
Lemon adds that once traffickers are denied benzocaine, their preferred agent, they will have to resort to poorer substitutes, which are easier to detect.
“These will not mask the cutting as effectively so people are much more likely to notice that they are getting a drop in quality but no drop in price.”
These “pharmaceutical” cutting agents have helped traffickers extend their market in the U.K., particularly to young people from their mid-teens to early twenties. After the drug has been successively cut by chain of dealers, its purity can be as low as 2 percent.
Over two tons of benzocaine, which arrived in four consignments at U.K. ports in the space of just one week, were seized. None of the four importers were able to provide SOCA with evidence of any legitimate customers in the U.K., so the haul was incinerated.
“SOCA prosecutes those supporting the illegal drug market wherever it can. But we also want to find ways to cause damage and disruption to the large numbers involved. This seizure has taken millions out of drug dealers’ pockets—money which would have been reinvested in crime,” according to Lemon.
Last month, a U.K. woman was sentenced to nine years after a court ruled that importing cutting agents illegally is tantamount to supplying cocaine.
Brodie Clark, head of the Border Force, called it a “landmark” ruling.
“That landmark ruling gives us much greater scope to target those involved in all aspects of drug smuggling, including those importing the likes of benzocaine,” SOCA quotes Clark as saying on their website.
The medical industry buys over three tons of benzocaine from Europe annually.
Large quantities of benzocaine are being bought from manufacturers in China for around $470 per 55 pound barrel. This is then sold on to customers who mix it with cocaine, SOCA believes.
SOCA was founded four years ago under the previous U.K. government. The new coalition government formed last May says it intends to disband it.
