Cocaine on 90% of US Dollar Bills

by candice.tsuei | August 17, 2009 at 10:09 am

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Cocaine is found on 90% of the U.S. dollar bills, according to a study presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.

The figure for the US capital is up 20% over two years. They say the rise observed in the US may be due to increased drug use caused by higher stress levels linked to the global economic downturn.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, tested banknotes from 30 big cities in five countries - the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, and Brazil. The result shows that cocaine-traced bills are prevailing in big metropolitan areas in both the U.S. and Canada. Brazil, ranking third, has 80% of its banknotes contaminated. In China and Japan, the presence of cocaine on banknotes occurs on a much lower level at around 12-20%.

In the US, big cities including Washington, Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit appeared to have the highest average cocaine levels on the dollar bills. Contrarily, the "cleanest" city was Salt Lake City, home of the Mormons.

The study authors speculate that the increase of residue on bills is likely in step with an increase in cocaine consumption—already as much as a $70 billion annual industry in the U.S., according to the researchers. An estimated 6 million Americans use cocaine each year, consuming somewhere between 259-447 tons of the stuff.

Cocaine users often inhale the drug through the nose by using a rolled-up banknote, and these banknotes can contaminate the cash system in cash counting machines in banks. The amounts of cocaine found on the bills ranged from 0.006 micrograms to 1,240 micrograms, an amount equivalent to about 50 grains of sand.

In Europe, Spanish Euro notes were the most contaminated, carrying five times the amount of cocaine as Euro notes circulating in Germany. Irish Euros were the cleanest in that study, though a year before, Irish authorities reported finding coke on 100% of the 45 bills they tested.

I think it's worth noting here, that the bills from Washington, DC were the most tainted, at 95%. Canadian bills, while not quite so high (85%), had a higher concentration of cocaine on them. But don't bother sniffing, it's not enough to get high on, or busted for!

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