Cocaine traces 'on Spanish euros'

[stonecoldsober]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6208877.stm



Users of the drug usually snort it by rolling up a banknote into the shape of a tube.

But experts said it was difficult to tell which notes had been used for snorting cocaine and which had become contaminated with the drug in other ways, such as in counting machines.

According to El Mundo Spain has just over one billion banknotes in circulation, with estimates suggesting that 142 million have been used directly to snort the drug.



:rofl:

[Joanne98]

1. There are cocaine traces on the dollar too.

[alfredo]

9. I remember a business, a diner, that got in trouble

with the DEA when they found traces of cocaine on the money in the cash register. What the fuck did they expect from a diner in the inner city of Detroit?

the owner must not have been keeping up with protection money.

[zonkers]

2. the Spaniards I know do like to party.

[truthisfreedom]

3. What a ridiculous way to get a terrible infection!

You might as well let every person on a subway stick a finger up your nose. Eww!

[stonecoldsober]

5. Don't worry, the cocaine will kill it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. They have been finding traces of cocaine on US currency for years now

My son's GF flew into Canada about 5 years ago and was held in customs for hours because they found traces of coke on a $20 bill in her wallet. Her parents were there to pick her up at the airport and they immediately called an attorney. The attorney took a credit card from his wallet and rubbed it across the tainted $20 bill and told customs to test his card and now it too would show traces of coke.

Customs let her go.

I love that story. :)

[tuvor]

7. I had heard that years ago. This Spanish-money story is hardly "news".

Some academic studies show that the typical American bill does some hard living. In 1997 the Argonne National Laboratory found that 78 percent of bills from Miami, Houston and Chicago carried trace amounts of cocaine. Later tests have found similar results. Cocaine on cash is so commonplace that the courts have ruled that police can no longer use a drug-sniffing dog’s signal to nab a suspect or to confiscate money because it’s deemed drug-related.

http://money.aol.com/special/canvas/_a/the-secret-life-of-the-dollar/20060531203909990001

[Xipe Totec]

10. I got dismissed from jury duty for pointing that out

during jury selection. They were trying to convict a guy for possession of a crack pipe with cocaine residue on it. The prosecution was explaining that under federal zero tolerance guidelines any amount, no mater how small, should be enough to convict. The prosecutor then asked if we had any questions. I raised my hand, told him what I knew about contaminated US currency and told him he probably had currency in his wallet with enough traces to convict him. He smiled, had a side bar with the judge, and the judge told me I could leave.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. LOL I can see why they wouldn't want you on that jury

My friend got dismissed when she said that she thought drug dealers should get the death penalty. She didn't really believe that, but she wanted to get out of jury duty.

[CK_John]

6. Maybe that's what is keeping those bears awake. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

8. If they just made it illegal for bears to carry Euros, we could get rid of this global warming

thing. Maybe if we got them credit cards?