Strawberry flavored, sold on social networks…: what is pink cocaine, a new drug that has appeared in France?

This synthetic drug, which has been circulating in France for several years, does not in fact contain cocaine, but a mixture of different substances.

Last September, Spanish police discovered an impressive shipment of synthetic drugs in Ibiza: more than 300 kilos of ecstasy, 212 kilos of ketamine and 21 kilos of “pink cocaine”. Also called “tusibi” (English pronunciation of the synthetic product “2-CB”), this drug will appear in certain regions of France in 2021, according to a report from the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies ( OFDT) dating from June 2023.

According to analyzes cited by the OFDT, this drug is not in fact cocaine, but “a cocktail of several substances”. We find there ketamine, known for its hallucinogenic effects, MDMA, also called ecstasy, and caffeine, to which products can be added “hallucinogens, opiates or medications of any kind”, sometimes flavored, banana, strawberry, passion fruit flavor…

Sold in powder form, at prices ranging from “60 to 100 euros”according to the Observatory, consumers use it by snorting it or injecting it. They then describe hallucinogenic and stimulating effects. The health risks are high, since there are as many as there are different substances: a very difficult descent, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, loss of consciousness or even overdose, which can lead to death.

Ketamine can also cause violent dissociative effects, in some cases, and difficulty breathing. Side effects which can be all the more dangerous as the user does not necessarily know what they are consuming, thinking that they have purchased cocaine.

Still according to the OFDT, similar pink powders have already been reported in Spain, and as early as 2010 in Latin America, and in particular in Colombia, a major cocaine producing country.