As you’ve seen many times in movies, cocaine looks just like any fine white powder.
Even when observed from a close distance, identifying the substance by sight alone can be pretty tricky due to its similarity in appearance to cornstarch, baking soda, talcum powder, or flour.
Some movies use powdered milk to depict the presence of cocaine in the scenes. An easy way to identify cocaine is to pay attention to the package and its surrounding. Cocaine is often stored in small bags and well-concealed.
It is illegal anywhere and expensive, so anybody in possession of cocaine will go to great lengths to avoid detection. Sometimes, it is hidden in plain sight.
On May 1, 2019, Environmental International published a study that revealed the presence of cocaine in freshwater shrimps captured from 15 sites all across Suffolk, UK.
It wasn’t just a peculiarity in one or two specimens observed because the substance was found in all of the samples taken.
There were 56 compounds found; apart from cocaine, other dangerous drugs such as ketamine and a banned pesticide known as lufenuron.
10 /10 A Surprise Discovery
Researchers from King’s College London, in collaboration with the University of Suffolk, took samples from 15 locations across Suffolk.
All the samples taken from the mostly rural area of eastern England showed the presence of cocaine and other illicit drugs and banned pesticides in their system.
It remains unclear if the problem has also occurred all over the country and abroad.
It is not as if somebody will deliberately throw away some drugs into the river, so the cocaine has to come and contaminate the river from other methods.
9 /10 Gammarus Pulex
The type of shrimps used as samples was scientifically known as Gammarus pulex.
In addition to cocaine and ketamine, another drug found in the shrimps was lidocaine – a local anesthetic used by drug dealers to dilute cocaine and bulk up the package volume.
All three drugs were found in the highest concentrations, but researchers also detected antianxiety medications, including diazepam and alprazolam, most often recognized as Valium and Xanax.
Propranolol, a drug to treat irregular heartbeats and high blood pressure, was also present. In total, researchers found 56 compounds that should not have been there.