
90 percent of U.S. bills carry traces of cocaine (2009) - networked
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/
======
rl3
It's nice to see they recorded the denomination of each bill. Too bad the
article didn't go into further detail in its summarization.

The abstract[0] says $1 _and_ $100 denominations were less likely to test
positive. The latter is curious. Perhaps it's because lower denominations are
more likely to be used by street dealers, or that $20 bills make up the
majority of triple-digit ATM transactions.

It's worth noting that currency has a lot more than just trace amounts of
cocaine on it.[1] Trace amounts of any common narcotic can create problems if
_probable cause with fur_ happens to get a whiff of your cash.

> _There is cocaine dust around the machines. These bank tellers breathe in
> cocaine._

Here I thought handling large amounts of cash was just intrinsically
exhilarating.

[0]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18646272](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18646272)

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_currency#In_the...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_currency#In_the_United_States)

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Hmm... on [1], how can it be that they tested 10 banknotes, and "92%" tested
positive?

~~~
bluenose69
Quoting from [1]: "ten randomly collected one-dollar bills from five cities"

------
refurb
I hate to sound like a broken record, but "traces" can mean amazingly small
amounts these days due to testing sensitivity. Remember this when you read
"traces of [insert toxic metal] were found in drinking water!!".

I don't know what the testing limits for cocaine are, but parts per billion
wouldn't surprise me. For some metals, it can be parts per trillion. Ppt would
he equivalent to one microgram in a cubic meter (one metric ton) of water.

------
glaberficken
I wonder what they would find if they tested for fecal matter instead, for
example...

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matheweis
Maybe this is the reason for the false positives from drug dogs ;)

~~~
iRobbery
Perhaps this is how they find large amounts of hidden cash, with the same drug
dog?

~~~
ZoeZoeBee
Dogs can be trained to the scent of many items, some are trained to
specifically smell for cash. The TSA black labs are designed to sniff out
explosives and not drugs. Some dogs are even being trained to sniff out
electronics.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-197623/Dogs-help-
sni...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-197623/Dogs-help-sniff-crime-
cash.html)

~~~
drcongo
It _may_ be true, but the Daily Mail is definitely not a reputable news
source.

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trhway
Is it drug paraphernalia in your wallet?... 90% seems like a very satisfactory
probability for probable cause

------
kristopolous
But how can I extract and collect it for personal use?

~~~
oxide
wash a stack of bills and drink the water?

~~~
kristopolous
sounds like a party drug mix! can you believe people pay extra for such
concoctions?!

------
acd
How many persons does a US bill pass on average in circulation before its
handed into a bank?

You are connected to with an average distance of 3.57 to every facebook user.

What is your average distance to a substance user?

~~~
JBReefer
Probably a distance of 1 for basically everyone

------
quanium1337
Here we go, the war on cash begins...

~~~
justinjlynn
begins? where have you been? the big push to debit cards and gradually making
procurement of any reasonable quantity of cash (especially given inflation
these days) almost impossible has been going on for ages.

~~~
jdblair
I really don't understand this. What's a reasonable amount? I withdrew $2500
in cash from my bank last week. No questions other than "how would you like
that?" and "would you like an envelope?"

~~~
justinjlynn
Well, let's see... Living in San Francisco. If you paid for rent, groceries,
and every thing in cash you could easily require 4k per month. That just so
happens to be slightly below reporting amount. Do this enough and you'll be
suspected of structuring your withdrawals to avoid the 5k withdrawal reporting
threshold. I know the plural of anecdote is _not_ data but it has been my
experience that if you try to use cash for everything it gets you a nice
little chat when you come in to make your monthly withdrawals and a threat to
close your accounts that they will _not_ give you in writing (I've asked).
This is not just one institution and $deity save you if you have even so much
have even looked at a bitcoin exchange let alone transacted with one. That was
enough for US bank to threaten to close my accounts if I did any more business
with them. If you want to transact in cash, just try to do it regularly and in
volume, for everything. You'll only realise you're in a cage once you've run
up against the invisible bars.

~~~
ianhawes
The withdrawal reporting threshold is actually $10K. In my experience, banks
typically won't prevent you from withdrawing over $10K either, though they do
file a report. The report is just another datapoint though, and not evidence
of a crime.

If I had to guess, you probably just irritated someone because of your
withdrawal size combined with the fact that most banks do not hold more than
$15-$20K in cash.

~~~
justinjlynn
I believe it is 5k now:
[https://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/pages_manual/OLM_015....](https://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/pages_manual/OLM_015.htm)

and I probably did irritate someone with the withdrawal size. They started
making me request it a week in advance before they decide it was too much
trouble for them.

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hotpxl
Dude. I gotta burn all my US dollars and smoke them.

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muniri
Great article. This is why I only carry $1 bills.

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awqrre
Therefor, if you have money, it's ok to do cocaine...

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snsn2828
All I could hear in my head while reading this was the theme song for Narcos

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b3h3moth
Many years ago an Italian magazine[0] wrote that 100% banknotes of the city of
Milan was highly polluted by cocaine.

[0] [http://bit.ly/22d6yKX](http://bit.ly/22d6yKX) (ita)

