What is Pink Cocaine and Why is it So Dangerous?
Table of Contents
Dr. Marco M. Zahedi
Medical Director, Compassion Recovery Center
Dr. Michael Majeski
Licensed Psychologist (LP), Compassion Recovery Center
Pink cocaine is the hip new party drug that’s everywhere in the news. But, what is it? And, what makes it so dangerous?
In short, pink cocaine is a cocktail of drugs, sometimes called a “Designer” drug mixing other party drugs. These most often don’t include any cocaine at all. In addition, the recipe is normally made up of 2C-B and sometimes caffeine. However, more often, the drug is a mix of MDMA, ketamine, fentanyl, caffeine, and sometimes 2C-B.
That “cocktail” of drugs means two things for anyone taking it. The first is that you never know what you’re going to get. The second is that you’re introducing mixes of drugs that may interact in unpredictable ways based on factors like drug strength, amount of each drug, genetics and even weight of the person using them, and individual tolerances of the person using. As a result, pink cocaine can be quite a bit more unpredictable than hallucinogenic drugs that are not a mix of different drugs.
What is Pink Cocaine?
Pink cocaine is a mix of 2C-B, MDMA, ketamine, and caffeine. Each of these ingredients is used independently for different reasons. In Pink Cocaine, they’ve been mixed with the intent of creating a high that is also an upper, leaving you “ready to party”.
It’s part of an increasing trend towards “designer drugs”. These are often developed to be slightly different from controlled substances without altering the high, allowing them to be sold legally or at least semi-legally.
In other cases, designer drugs take existing drugs and mix them in new ways to create new effects or to change the overall experience. So, instead of going to a party and taking MDMA with red bull, you take a single pill and get the high with the caffeine.
This approach means that drugs are manufactured illicitly in labs and often mixed in labs. In addition, as popularity and demand for the drug goes up, more people are likely to get in on making it, meaning that quality, predictability, and uniform usage of ingredients goes down.
Today, that means pink cocaine is less likely to contain the original ingredients of 2C-B
In fact, the DEA has sampled pink cocaine made up of:
- Fentanyl and cocaine
- Ketamine and MDMA
- Methamphetamine, ketamine, and MDMA
- Fentanyl and xylazine
- 2C-B
- 2C-B and caffeine
Because the drug is harder to get, you’re more likely to be buying a random mix of drugs with pink dye rather than 2C-B. That means pink cocaine can be wildly unpredictable and you never actually know what you’re getting until you have your drugs tested.
What Goes into Pink Cocaine?
Pink cocaine is a mix of four drugs, most of which are used recreationally. Of these, only caffeine is normally legal to use. Let’s take a look at the rest of the ingredients.
2C-B – 2C-B is the original “pink cocaine” sometimes also known as Nexus. This drug was synthesized in 1974 and quickly became used as a recreational drug. 2C-B is popular for its similarity to ecstasy. However, 2C-B has a shorter effect.
MDMA – MDMA, or ecstasy, is a hallucinogenic drug popular in raves. It’s often used to replace 2C-B because it’s cheaper and more accessible. However, the effects last much longer.
Ketamine – Ketamine is an approved medical drug used by ambulances. It’s also sometimes mixed into pills alongside caffeine to create hallucinogenic effects with an upper – which is hoped to be experienced similarly to MDMA and 2C-B. However, ketamine is dissociative and can result in feeling not in control of your body or environment.
Caffeine – Caffeine is one of the most commonly consumed drugs in the world. In pink cocaine, it’s often mixed in to create an up effect alongside downers like ketamine and opioids.
Opioids – Opioid drugs like fentanyl and morphine are cheap and commonly used in making “fake” pink cocaine. These drugs deliver a high but are also sedative, addictive, and come with additional risks of overdose that is not present with most hallucinogenic drugs.
How Common is Pink Cocaine?
Pink cocaine is not a common drug. Instead, it’s a designer drug that people usually pay more for. People buying it expect it to be a relatively safe hallucinogenic that will provide, at most, a few hours of feeling high during a party or rave.
The DEA reports seizing almost 1,000 samples of pink cocaine to the 180 million fentanyl pills. Most notably, only 4 of those almost 1,000 samples were 2C-B and the rest were other substances. In addition, most of those seizures were around Miami, New York, and Los Angeles.
What Makes Pink Cocaine So Dangerous?
Pink cocaine can be extremely dangerous for a number of reasons.
- Drug Mixes – Pink cocaine often mixes multiple substances together to create desired effects. That increases risks of side-effects, makes treating overdoses more difficult, and means that you will have unpredictable results.
- Potential Overdose – Pink cocaine very often contains opioids and caffeine. It’s more and more common to see pink cocaine with fentanyl, an opioid that’s up to 50 times stronger than heroin. In addition, it can contain caffeine, sometimes in extremely high amounts. Caffeine overdose can occur from about 5 grams and it can have extremely bad interactions with other drugs at much lower amounts. This means you can have an overdose, end up with heart problems, or have a caffeine overdose as a result of taking something that was supposed to be a hallucinogenic. Most importantly, most drug strip tests don’t check for caffeine despite the fact that pink cocaine is now often made up of mixes of caffeine and opioids to hide the sedative effect of the opioids.
- Lack of Standardization – When the DEA seized close to 1,000 samples of pink cocaine, only four of them contained 2C-B. This means you never know what you’re getting when you buy pink cocaine. The only way to know for sure is to have your drugs tested. Some organizations like DanceSafe do this for free or at low cost. For example, you can get fentanyl test strips to check if your pink cocaine contains fentanyl, reducing chances of overdose. However, one drug sample from one dealer does not mean every sample from that dealer will be the same.
Essentially, there’s not a safe way to use illicit drugs, even when they’re supposed to be relatively harmless. Pink cocaine and other designer drugs are more and more often not even the drugs they are sold as, which makes it impossible to use safely.
Getting Help
If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse, it’s important to talk to your doctor. Drugs like pink cocaine can never be safe when they are not manufactured under strict regulatory standards that control contents, chemical makeup, and quantity. As a result, taking drugs like pink cocaine always means risking an overdose, risking addiction to opioids, and risking heart problems and overdose with caffeine.
If you’re having trouble stopping or if you feel you need the release of using drugs to let go of things, it’s important to talk to your doctor, to ask for mental health help, and to get therapy and any other support you need to find healthy coping mechanisms that don’t put your life at risk.
