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#1
17-02-2007, 20:05
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self-destructing euro notes tied to meth
Designer drug to blame for disintegrating euro notes
Independent: 14.11.06 German police have claimed that the corrosive designer drug known as "crystal meth" was responsible for hundreds of self-destructing euro notes which have been mysteriously disintegrating in the hands of baffled shoppers and bank clerks since early last summer. More than 1,700 crumbling 50 and 20 notes have surfaced in at least 17 German towns and cities since June this year, prompting fears of a potential health risk and speculation about a possible blackmail attempt. The crumbing note mystery, which causes large holes to appear in euro notes as soon as they are touched, prompted a nationwide investigation by police and the German Bundesbank, which has been obliged to take back hundreds of damaged 50 and 20 notes. Yet nobody blamed drug users for the problem. Police and the German Bundesbank said they had almost certainly solved the mystery. The answer is apparently the designer drug crystal methamphetamine. Taken through the nose, the drug is rapidly replacing cocaine at parties and on the German club scene. Rainer Wenzel, a police forensic scientist who has been given the job of solving the bank-note mystery, said yesterday that crystal meth addicts habitually used a 50 or a 20 note to portion out and snort the drug because the notes had the right proportions. "When a contaminated note comes into contact with human sweat, an aggressive acid is produced," he said. "If the note is in a wallet with a wad of other notes, the corrosion will spread to all of them." Police said that although crystal meth had originated in the United States, where it has become the scourge of rural America, large quantities of the highly addictive and destructive drug were coming into Germany from Poland and the Balkans, where crystal methamphetamine was being refined and mixed with corrosive sulphates in the process. Drug users in Europe should be wary: if the example of the US is anything to go by, crystal meth can prove lethal to rural communities not usually associated with chronic drug abuse. Much more so than cocaine, crack, heroin or marijuana, small-town USA has steadily fallen prey to crystal meth, the effects of which are described by some as "having 10 orgasms at once". Originally produced using over-the-counter medication containing ephedrine bought from local chemists, use of the drug has steadily increased over the past few years. Although disintegrating 50 and 20 notes are a new phenomenon, the discovery of drug traces on bank notes has become routine. Three years ago German researchers conducted an exhaustive examination of 600 euro notes. They found that nine out of 10 banknotes carried clearly measurable amounts of cocaine and concluded that they could contaminate notes in bank cash-counting machines. Professor Fritz Soergel of the Nuremberg Institute for Pharmaceutical Research, which carried out the study, started examining euro notes shortly after the introduction of the new currency in January 2002. Back then, only two out of 70 notes were found to carry traces of cocaine. He said that his findings showed there was a clear correlation between the contaminated notes and levels of recorded cocaine use in the 12 countries of the euro currency zone. "Much less cocaine was found on banknotes from countries where there is less cocaine usage, such as France, Finland and Greece," he said. The worst offenders were the Spanish. Professor Soergel said he and his team of researchers were "almost knocked flat" by the results of a study conducted in Barcelona. "The concentrations of cocaine on Spanish notes were almost a hundred times that of what we recorded in Germany," he said. German police have claimed that the corrosive designer drug known as "crystal meth" was responsible for hundreds of self-destructing euro notes which have been mysteriously disintegrating in the hands of baffled shoppers and bank clerks since early last summer. More than 1,700 crumbling 50 and 20 notes have surfaced in at least 17 German towns and cities since June this year, prompting fears of a potential health risk and speculation about a possible blackmail attempt. The crumbing note mystery, which causes large holes to appear in euro notes as soon as they are touched, prompted a nationwide investigation by police and the German Bundesbank, which has been obliged to take back hundreds of damaged 50 and 20 notes. Yet nobody blamed drug users for the problem. Police and the German Bundesbank said they had almost certainly solved the mystery. The answer is apparently the designer drug crystal methamphetamine. Taken through the nose, the drug is rapidly replacing cocaine at parties and on the German club scene. Rainer Wenzel, a police forensic scientist who has been given the job of solving the bank-note mystery, said yesterday that crystal meth addicts habitually used a 50 or a 20 note to portion out and snort the drug because the notes had the right proportions. "When a contaminated note comes into contact with human sweat, an aggressive acid is produced," he said. "If the note is in a wallet with a wad of other notes, the corrosion will spread to all of them." Police said that although crystal meth had originated in the United States, where it has become the scourge of rural America, large quantities of the highly addictive and destructive drug were coming into Germany from Poland and the Balkans, where crystal methamphetamine was being refined and mixed with corrosive sulphates in the process. Drug users in Europe should be wary: if the example of the US is anything to go by, crystal meth can prove lethal to rural communities not usually associated with chronic drug abuse. Much more so than cocaine, crack, heroin or marijuana, small-town USA has steadily fallen prey to crystal meth, the effects of which are described by some as "having 10 orgasms at once". Originally produced using over-the-counter medication containing ephedrine bought from local chemists, use of the drug has steadily increased over the past few years. Although disintegrating 50 and 20 notes are a new phenomenon, the discovery of drug traces on bank notes has become routine. Three years ago German researchers conducted an exhaustive examination of 600 euro notes. They found that nine out of 10 banknotes carried clearly measurable amounts of cocaine and concluded that they could contaminate notes in bank cash-counting machines. Professor Fritz Soergel of the Nuremberg Institute for Pharmaceutical Research, which carried out the study, started examining euro notes shortly after the introduction of the new currency in January 2002. Back then, only two out of 70 notes were found to carry traces of cocaine. He said that his findings showed there was a clear correlation between the contaminated notes and levels of recorded cocaine use in the 12 countries of the euro currency zone. "Much less cocaine was found on banknotes from countries where there is less cocaine usage, such as France, Finland and Greece," he said. The worst offenders were the Spanish. Professor Soergel said he and his team of researchers were "almost knocked flat" by the results of a study conducted in Barcelona. "The concentrations of cocaine on Spanish notes were almost a hundred times that of what we recorded in Germany," he said. 
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#3
24-02-2007, 00:28
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Re: self-destructing euro notes tied to meth
Oh i did not notice this in the first reading, but again the Press gets it wrong. I don't believe for a second that crystal meth, the effects of which are described by some as "having 10 orgasms at once". By some - like who - the police? Obviously no meth users opinion was used for the article. Why doesn't the news media talk with meth addicts off screem so their story can be heard also. The Press in most cases are just a bunch of egocentric, narrow-minded, herd following, clueless people who do not go after the real news but takes the spin being spun.
swim have to edit this but can someone tell me when methamphetamine became a designer drug? swim can;t picture a meth lab being the site of designer drugs with chemists designing new drugs to hook our children on.. See how bad the press gets it wrong. Designer Drugs just by name instill fear in parents because of these poorly written articles about designer drugs causing all sorts of brain damage. MDMA is a designer drug. swim could name maybe 20, but never would swim guess Crystal Methampetamine is a designer drug. I am glad the independent sorted me out. Feed me misinformation about the effects and it being a designer drug. Wouldn't everyone want to experience 10 orgasms at once? Swim think even swims parents would be up for that. Here is the press overexaggerates the effects and swim does not know how this happen but also reclassifies it as a designer drug all in one story. This is exactley what swim is talking about when she points this out about the press. Many in our press uses sensationalism and use bold amd catchey headlines for the stories they write, to scare people from using. Well at least the American press but isn't the telegraph out of England? Well here is the list of Designer Drugs according to the DEA which swim may mail to the independent so they can get it right. Or is swim wrong, does britain classify meth as a designer drug? If so the british government is wrong, Methamphetamine was first synthesized in 1887, swim did not know that designer drugs have been around for 120 years. swim now wonder if great grandfather might have used designer drugs like great grandson. Gee and swim always thought they started to appear in the 80s swim means 1980a not 1880s''''' Well-known designer drugs Most research chemicals are structural analogues of tryptamines or phenethylamines, but there are also completely unrelated chemicals which are normally considered to be part of the group. It is impossible to determine psychoactivity or other pharmaceutical properties of these chemicals strictly from examining their structure, and many of the substances have common effects whilst structurally different and vice versa. Confusing nomenclature, similar names, and differing naming schemes can all lead to (and is anecdotally known to have led to) potentially hazardous mixups for end users.
And the picture they paint of america couldn't be more wrong. Meth is used by 400,000 people in the USA which is a small number when compared to the 1.6 million coke users. It has yet to hit the east coast and the mom and pa cooking operations have been shut down. No, telegraph, meth has not taken over rural america as you claim, sorry telegraph you get it wrong again. swim believe only .3 percent of the american people use meth. NOt sure if the math works out. Last edited by renegades; 24-02-2007 at 08:33. Reason: edit
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