HEROIN IS RARELY CUT WITH POISONS

The common belief that street drugs such as heroin and LSD are cut
(adulterated) with household cleaning powders, scouring agents or
poisons is rare, a new report says.

The report, prepared by Mr Ross Coomber, principal lecturer at the
School of Social Sciences at the University of Greenwich in London,
says media and other authorities' emphasis on the dangers of cutting
agents diverts attention from the more real risks of drug taking:
blood-borne viruses, purity and potency.

The paper is published in Drug Link, the journal of the Institute of
Studies on Drug Dependence, in Britain.

It analysed 14 papers and studies on adulteration of street drugs,
including data on drug samples seized by police in Britain, the United
States and Australia.

The paper found that most cutting of heroin was done before it was
imported and with substances that often enhanced the drug's effect.

Forensic analysis of street drugs found that the most common cutting
agent in heroin in the 1990s was paracetamol. Analysis of heroin
samples by the US Drug Enforcement Administration since 1990 found
various sugars, pharmaceutical drugs (primarily paracetamol), opium
alkaloids and occasional salts.

"None of the dangerous cutting agents claimed and feared have been
found," the report said. "In Europe, sugars are less likely to be
found in heroin. But here as well, dangerous cutting agents are not
found."