Street drugs contamination

False. Most street drugs contain contaminating substances. These have either been added deliberately to bulk out the drug or have been left in as a result of inadequate manufacturing processes. Sometimes the contaminants can be extremely harmful to health. 

Street drugs are often modified by substitution, dilution, contamination, or adulteration [V ]. 

Further into the body, methamphetamine has been implicated in damages to the kidney and liver. In the kidney, methamphetamine use has been shown to cause acute kidney failure by constriction of the blood vessels that nourish the kidney. In the liver, methamphetamines have been shown to cause direct liver damage both through the drug itself and through the many contaminants street methamphetamine often contains. 

In its pure form, PCP is a white crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water to produce a clear liquid. Often, street PCP is contaminated with chemical impurities, which can change a white powder or clear liquid to tan or brown and change the consistency from powder to sludge. Purity of street PCP can range from 5% to 100%, but 100% pure PCP is considered to be extremely rare on the street. A common contaminant in PCP is a chemically related drug called PCC, which releases cyanide when burned. It does not produce enough cyanide to cause symptoms with one use, but use over time can lead to brain cell and nerve damage. 

Street PCP is often contaminated with other chemicals because its easy and cheap manufacture makes it attractive to drug producers without a chemical background. These amateur drug makers do not know how to purify their final product or perform proper experiments to test for purity. 

Addicts typically use street heroin mixed with a number of adulterants, such as quinine or lactose, and they often inject combinations of illicit drugs. Three patients who developed the clinical and morphologic picture of heroin nephropathy claimed to have used only intravenous pentazocine and tripelennamine [41]. It has been suggested that the contaminants rather than the narcotic itself might be the inciting factor through the mechanism of mesangial overload [34]. 

Pestidde and Industrial Chemicals Branch, Diviskm of Contaminants Chemistry, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 200 C Street S.IV., Washington, DC 20204... 

---