Weird New Kinds Of Cocaine Could Start A “Hidden Epidemic” Of Health Threats

A hidden epidemic of chronic disease — organ failure, leaky blood vessels, and “flesh eating” infections — might threaten cocaine and meth users in coming years because of increasing signs of dangerous adulterants in illicit drugs, analysts warn.

That’s worrisome because cocaine use is up 47% since its low point in 2011, with 2.2% of people over the age of 12 reporting they have snorted or smoked it in the last year. US cocaine and methamphetamine overdose deaths have also roughly tripled in the last five years, according to the CDC. (Methamphetamine overdoses killed 12,987 people last year, and cocaine overdoses killed another 15,699.)

The increases in deaths from these stimulant drugs have been obscured by an even larger number of deaths from opioids: mostly painkiller pills, heroin, or illicit fentanyl. More than 40,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2018, a slight decline from the previous year, which remarkably led to the first decline in total US overdose deaths in 28 years.

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