


In general, drugs are about 40 percent purer west of the Mississippi. In 2016, more than a third of all overdose deaths in New York City involved a combination of fentanyl and cocaine.Īccording to Forbes, cocaine purity levels range between 28.6 percent (Nevada) and 66.5 percent (Utah) across the United States based on drug seizure data published by the DEA. Business Insider warns that fentanyl is increasingly showing up in cocaine, often without a user’s knowledge, and the results can be deadly.įentanyl is extremely potent.

Other common adulterants for cocaine include:Īnother potentially dangerous adulterant in cocaine is a synthetic opioid called fentanyl. The Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy reports that levamisole (a deworming agent) is the most commonly used cutting agent in cocaine. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publishes that illicit cocaine is regularly cut with adulterants that equal about three times the weight of the drug itself. The manufacturing process alone affects the purity level of the drug, and before it is even distributed to local dealers, it is often full of toxins.Ĭocaine powder is cut with other products, often with substances that look similar to cocaine, to stretch it out or bulk it up to increase profits. The process for making cocaine into a recreational drug often includes soaking the product in toxic substances such as gasoline. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that the majority of the cocaine product in the United States comes up through Mexico after it is produced in jungle labs in Colombia.Ĭocaine is manufactured from the plant into a white powder or solid rock forms called crack. Cocaine is mostly found in the United States in its illicit, or illegal, form derived from coca leaves grown in South America.
