Sunday, November 06, 2005

This Story Is Pretty Crazy



Cocaine Traces Detected in River Thames


LONDON (AFP) - So much cocaine is being used in London that traces of the white powdered narcotic can be detected in the River Thames, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.

Citing scientific research which it had commissioned, it said an estimated two kilogrammes of cocaine, or 80,000 lines, spill into the river every day after it has passed through users' bodies and sewage treatment plants.

It extrapolated that 150,000 lines of the illegal drug are snorted in the British capital every day, or 15 times higher than the official figure given by the Home Office.

Because of the long-term complications of cocaine use, we are looking at a healthcare time bomb," clinical toxologist John Henry was quoted as saying.

4 comments:

Jody said...

Ha Ha!

Annie said...

Hey, there was a very similar study in Italy where wayyyyy more cocaine was going through the sewer system than was previously estimated. So crazy!

zandperl said...

Oh man, that IS nuts! That's awesome that they can calculate from the traces in the Thames how much is being used. What's the original source? (link?)

Jody said...

Oops! I usually donèt forget the source.

I got it off Yahoo News.

Here's the link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051106/lf_afp/afplifestylebritaincocaineoffbeat_051106124030