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Study Shows Cocaine And Other Drugs In Spanish Air

If you live in Madrid or Barcelona, you might not notice the air pollution due to your contact buzz according to a new study. The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations found the air in those cities to be laced with at least five drugs: amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids, lysergic acid and most prominently cocaine. Researchers found cocaine in concentrations between 29 and 850 picogram per cubic meter of air. The group stresses that the air samples were taken in high drug areas and don't represent most of the air in the cities.

40 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. BRB by WilyCoder · · Score: 5, Funny

    BRB, packing my bags....

    1. Re:BRB by sofar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      what makes you think this is any different than in a typical town in (insert state/country you live in)?

    2. Re:BRB by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      "what makes you think this is any different than in a typical town in (insert state/country you live in)?"

      Wasn't there a recent study in the US, that in the water supplies they found mostly pharmceutical drugs...even levels of birth control, etc.

      I remember years back, hearing that you 'could' get tested positive for cocaine, just due to you handling currency. The reason being that not only were people using bills rolled up to snort it, but, that often money and the drugs were packed together for storage / transport. I'd heard that almost any bill could be picked at random, and test positive for traces of coke.

      Anecdotal, but, sounded plausible to me.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:BRB by pz · · Score: 4, Informative

      what makes you think this is any different than in a typical town in (insert state/country you live in)?

      Maybe because of what one of the researchers on the study said, as quoted from the article: "Mar Viana, another researcher who worked on the project, said the levels [in Madrid and Barcelona] were far higher than those found in similar studies in Europe."

      The article then goes on to cite another study in Italy where the highest concentration of cocaine found was 100 pg/m3 -- whereas in the Spanish study, the maximum found was 850 pg/m3. That's almost an order of magnitude difference between Spain and Italy. While there are many, many reasons this might be true, certainly it would appear that Madrid and Barcelona have much higher concentrations of drugs in the air than other cities.

      Despite the overwhelming behavior to the contrary, it really is often worth reading the linked articles before expressing an opinion.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    4. Re:BRB by Jaysyn · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    5. Re:BRB by teebob21 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not that it matters, but if you're going to rebut someone with a snopes link, at least state that it's true. Snopes debunks so many urban legends that the folks who can't be bothered to even RTFA will think you just debunked the whole cocaine-laced money thing.

      **SNIFF** Man, George Washington smells good.

      --
      khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
    6. Re:BRB by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here's another hypotesis: Spain has the highest percentage of cocaine consumers of the world (it even surpassed EEUU in 2005 or so). Drug in europe is introduced in our beachs, so here in spain it's quite cheap.

    7. Re:BRB by ResidntGeek · · Score: 2, Funny

      Which typo? There are two.

      --
      ResidntGeek
  2. That explains Manuel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    He's from Barcelona.

  3. Who still breathes CITY air? by CountOfJesusChristo · · Score: 5, Funny

    So this is how they will finally get people to buy bottled air?

    1. Re:Who still breathes CITY air? by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes, the brand is going to be "PerriAir"

    2. Re:Who still breathes CITY air? by JackSpratts · · Score: 2, Funny

      Anything but DerriAir.

    3. Re:Who still breathes CITY air? by AstroWeenie · · Score: 2

      Anything but DerriAir.

      This reminds me of the proposed new state motto for Wisconsin: "Come Smell Our Fresh Dairy Air". But the popular winner in the statewide vote was "Eat Cheese or Die!"

      Unfortunately the state declined both of these suggestions and decided to stick with the old slogan, "America's Dairyland".

  4. What about.... by Yuan-Lung · · Score: 2

    downtown Vancouver?


    I kinda wonder how much of the 'good stuff' is in our air..

    Sometimes I get a bit of a buzz just walking down the street after work to the bus stop.

  5. Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think about how small that is, and how large a cubic meter is. I'm not impressed. You can find a few molecules of almost anything almost everywhere, if you have sensitive enough equipment.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    1. Re:Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter by lobiusmoop · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't knock it, people have made millions by working with similar concentrations.

      --
      "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    2. Re:Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

      Don't knock it, people have made millions by working with similar concentrations.

      I have an open enough mind that some people might claim my brain could fall out sometimes, but the last thing on earth I could ever believe in is homeopathy - particularly it's secondary notion that diluting and succussing a substance makes it stronger.
      What a racket. You can milk the tiniest amounts of herbal or medicinal supplies over and over and make a fortune.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    3. Re:Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter by SnarfQuest · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sorry, but the concentrations in the air is far too high to be effective, according to the homeopathic cultists. You'd have to dilute it down by at least another 100,000:1.

      --
      Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    4. Re:Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter by Incadenza · · Score: 2, Informative

      Think about how small that is, and how large a cubic meter is. I'm not impressed. You can find a few molecules of almost anything almost everywhere, if you have sensitive enough equipment.

      You will be impressed when you travel from Barcelona to Dubai. In Dubai they have a minimum 4-year jail sentence for possession of drugs, with no lower limit for the amount of drugs. If they can jail you for 3mg stuck to the sole of your shoe or the poppy seeds from your bagel, then you'll want to use the plane's emergency oxygen for cleaning your lungs before landing. Unless you want to breath Dubai air for 4 years in a row.

  6. Primordial soup by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We just learned earlier today that RNA is found in primordial soup. That's a lot more complex than a cocaine molecule. I bet you could find cocaine in primoridal soup too.

    Indeed it's cocaine's simmilarity to other molecules in your blood that makes it work. One suspects therefore that because natural selection chose to use those as the currency for nuerotransmission that it's because they were present to begin with.

    (to understand that you have to appreciate the standard model of the evolution of metabolic pathways. the model says, initially organims will just recruit some abundant molecule as their feedstock or for a transmitter. As that molecule starts to deplete the oranisms will evolve some synthetic pathway for producing that molecule from some other abundant sources. and so on till you get to a situation where the original molecule is scarce but is still used by the system.

    thus the fact that we have receptors for cocaine-like molecules suggests that maybe cocaine like molecules were naturally abundant in pre-evolutionary times.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Primordial soup by EvilBudMan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Uh Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, +4 Informative? Should be +5 Funny! I really wanna see some citations here.

    2. Re:Primordial soup by Main+Gauche · · Score: 2, Funny

      Today's moderators are from Spain.

      Come to think of it, it's not just today.

    3. Re:Primordial soup by SlashWombat · · Score: 4, Funny

      And where can I buy some of this "Primordial soup"? It sounds tasty...

      I'm sure roughly half the restaurants I have been to were serving this, but calling it something else.

    4. Re:Primordial soup by hey! · · Score: 3, Funny

      We just learned earlier today that RNA is found in primordial soup.

      I'd send it back, then.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  7. Only coked out scientists by HandleMyBidness · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would be arrogant enough to name their operation "Superior Council".

  8. Molecular weight by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 4, Informative

    As I recall from my...err, never mind when that was...LSD is a relatively heavy molecule to be floating around. To have even a picogram detectable would imply a lot being manufactured.

  9. Makes me wonder... by ecotax · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is it still legal to breathe there?

    --
    "Money is a sign of poverty." - Iain Banks
  10. Re:Prague by mobby_6kl · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a current resident of Prague, I can confirm that the predominant smell in the city is indeed beer in any of its three forms: the hops-scented beverage, vomit, and piss.

  11. Re:LSD by QRDeNameland · · Score: 2, Informative

    But LSD is psychoactive at such low doses, I wonder if it actually does affect people.

    If you RTFA carefully (yeah yeah, I know), they didn't actually find LSD but lysergic acid which is a "precursor for a wide range of ergoline alkaloids that are produced by the ergot fungus and some plants".

    I'm not a chemist, but the two possibilities I see is that (a) it is naturally occurring; or (b) someone in the area is running an acid lab (probably more likely). Either way, plain lysergic acid will not have any hallucinogenic/entheogenic effects at those minute concentrations.

    --
    Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  12. Almost all low cost downtown apartment buildings.. by yourassOA · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reek like crack cocaine. See the hallway in an apartment is designed as a giant cold air duct. Air comes out of the room into the hallway under the door. Then through the stairways. Thats why there is always the breeze when you open the fire door it is air getting sucked out of the building. If you live in an apartment check out the gap under your door it is required to be there by building and fire codes. Feel the draft?

  13. Diabolical laughter by laederkeps · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nobody expects the spanish intoxication!

  14. Unreported marijuana pollen levels by flanksteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I grew up suffering from allergies in Phoenix and I remember reading the various pollen levels in the paper every morning during spring. I could see the different types of pollen levels and decide on whether or not to take my sleep-inducing antihistamines (this was waaay before Claritin and Zyrtec were readily available).

    I later read that the local pollen reporting organization was prohibited from reporting the levels of marijuana pollen in the air, even though it often jumped into the top 5. I don't think I'm allergic to bud pollen, but I felt bad for those who were.

  15. Take It To The Limit by DynaSoar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which absurdum shall we reducto it to?

    It's Spanish air, which is to say the air in Spain. Except it's not, it's a couple cities. But it's just the part of those cities that have more of the stuff we're measuring. What's next, a particular apartment building? But really it's Carlos's flat. Mostly in the bedroom. Under the bed. Down by the foot of it. In that box there. No not that one, the other one, the one with the drugs in it. Yeah that's it, that's the air in Spain.

    It's that air in those areas of those cities which is the Spanish air, and it has drugs in it. So the air in Europe is laced with drugs. Of course that means earth's atmosphere contains cocaine. In other words it's the solar system, meaning our galaxy, so it's the universe that has drugs in it. It's all the same, right?

    So nice of them to be so honest about overgeneralizing. Right there in the headline and summary it says one thing except no, it says something else. Thankfully this takes all the pressure off the author when it comes to pesky details like accuracy and precision and stuff, and lets us get right to the business of it being important and all. That important thingy is what makes it important. Just as long as it's it's important, such as being Spanish air rather than some air samples from the drug areas of a couple large cities, that makes it newsworthy here on dot. And by that I mean slash. Or maybe some of each, it doesn't really matter. Oh, wait, there's more to it than that. It needs to have something more than important stuff to get posted. It should have some words. Doesn't matter which ones, because what it means can change from one sentence to the next in order to make it worth reading.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  16. In other news... by zig43 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Junkie hospitalized after attempting to smoke air filter.

  17. Time has come to end the insanity by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We've got to end this insane war on drugs. Legalize them, regulate them and tax them at a level that won't promote a black market.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  18. Know what they call a cubic meter of air in Spain? by serutan · · Score: 4, Funny

    A Royale.

  19. Harbinger by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's probably not long before cops with tricorder-like gizmos stop people on the street for being high.

  20. So let me get this straight... by pluther · · Score: 5, Funny

    The rain in Spain will be full of cocaine?

    --
    If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
  21. Re:Well I don't know about cocaine by Psyborgue · · Score: 2, Funny

    pot, not pets. cannabis, not canines. reread.

  22. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion