COCAINE 'ON ALMOST ALL BANKNOTES IN LONDON'

MORE than 99 per cent of banknotes in London are tainted with cocaine,
according to a survey. More than 500 notes in all four denominations - 5,
10, 20 and 50 pounds - were examined. Only four of those tested by Mass Spec
Analytical, based in Bristol, showed no trace of the drug.

One in 20 showed high levels, indicating that the notes, supplied by the
Bank of England's Returned Notes centre in Loughton, Essex, had been handled
by dealers or used to "snort" the drug. It is believed that one of the
reasons so many notes show traces of the drug is because it is transmitted
from note to note either by bank sorting machines or dealers hand-counting
notes.

Joe Reevy, of Mass Spec Analytical, said: "Once you've taken a snort, the
compounds will be in the oils of your skin and they'll get transferred to
the notes you handle. That's the main way in which the cocaine gets on to
the notes.

"When you test notes that have been used directly to snort cocaine, you get
a great big reading and the machine takes quite a while to settle down. You
don't miss the difference."

BBC Newsroom South East, which carried out the investigation, also reveals
that the drug has plummeted in price from pounds 80 a gram to pounds 40 a
gram. The programme says the powder is now even being used by children.