It's a Funny World We Live In vol. 11

Flesh-Eating Cocaine Hits New York, Los Angeles (PHOTO)

This undated photo provided by Dr. Noah Craft shows a patient that suffered a severe skin reaction after using adulterated cocaine. In a June 7 paper in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, doctors analyzed two cases in Torrance, near Los Angeles, and four in New York where patients showed up at the emergency room complaining of purple blotches on their ears and other areas after taking cocaine. The study's authors say the drug users were suffering adverse reactions to cocaine tha

In a case study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. And while they happened to hail from the country's coastlines, the problem is national.

But drug cartels in South America increasingly prefer to use levamisole, a veterinary antibiotic normally used to deworm cattle, sheep, and pigs. It's not clear why dealers don't just use baking soda all the time, although studies in rats suggest that levamisole might tingle brain receptors in the same way cocaine does. If that's the case, adding it to the supply might be a way to enhance the effects of cocaine on the cheap.