Cocaine cut with the veterinary drug levamisole is reportedly responsible for a flesh-eating disease that is epidemic in the United States. According to ABC News, more than 80 percent of the country’s coke supply contains the drug, which is used to deworm cattle, pigs and sheep. If ingested by humans, it can rot the skin off your nose, ears and cheeks.
The effects of levamisole can be mild to extreme. One patient’s entire body, face included, was black with dying flesh. The drug also prevents bone marrow from producing infection-fighting white blood cells.
“It’s a little bit like having HIV,” says Dr Noah Craft, a dermatologist with Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute. He warns that if untreated, the disease can be fatal. “About 10 percent of those patients will die from severe infections,” he says. “They may be walking around like a time bomb.”
Sobriety suddenly seems very glamorous. Leave coke in the ‘80s where it belongs!
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