That cocaine can be found on 85% of Canadian banknotes. In a study presented Sunday at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, researchers looked at banknotes from more than 30 cities in Canada, the U.S., Brazil, China, and Japan.
Twenty-seven Canadian bills, taken mostly from Toronto and the Sarnia, Ont., area, were analyzed, said lead researcher Yuegang Zuo, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Of the Canadian bills, 85 per cent were laced with cocaine. The amount of coke found on the banknotes ranged from 2.4 micrograms to upwards of 2,530 micrograms – approximately 100 grains of sand.
The results in the U.S. were similar. The researchers examined 234 bills from 17 U.S. cities and found that nearly 90 per cent of the notes contained trace amounts of cocaine.
Scientists have long known that money can become contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or by snorting the drug through rolled bills.
Bills that are not involved in drug deals can also be contaminated as they are processed by banks.
Despite the study's findings, Zuo said people shouldn't have any health or legal concerns about handling drug-tainted paper money.
In most of the notes examined, the amount of cocaine found was too small to interfere with drug tests or cause any health problems, he said.
Twenty-seven Canadian bills, taken mostly from Toronto and the Sarnia, Ont., area, were analyzed, said lead researcher Yuegang Zuo, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Of the Canadian bills, 85 per cent were laced with cocaine. The amount of coke found on the banknotes ranged from 2.4 micrograms to upwards of 2,530 micrograms – approximately 100 grains of sand.
The results in the U.S. were similar. The researchers examined 234 bills from 17 U.S. cities and found that nearly 90 per cent of the notes contained trace amounts of cocaine.
Scientists have long known that money can become contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or by snorting the drug through rolled bills.
Bills that are not involved in drug deals can also be contaminated as they are processed by banks.
Despite the study's findings, Zuo said people shouldn't have any health or legal concerns about handling drug-tainted paper money.
In most of the notes examined, the amount of cocaine found was too small to interfere with drug tests or cause any health problems, he said.
Courtesy of the Toronto Star 2009
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