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Study Shows Cocaine And Other Drugs In Spanish Air
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu May 14, 2009 01:41 PM
from the can-you-smell-the-party dept.
from the can-you-smell-the-party dept.
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.
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BRB (Score:5, Funny)
BRB, packing my bags....
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
what makes you think this is any different than in a typical town in (insert state/country you live in)?
Primordial soup (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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Uh Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, +4 Informative? Should be +5 Funny! I really wanna see some citations here.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Today's moderators are from Spain.
Come to think of it, it's not just today.
Re:Primordial soup (Score:4, Funny)
We just learned earlier today that RNA is found in primordial soup.
I'd send it back, then.
Parent
Re:Primordial soup (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Optimism, mostly.
Re:BRB (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp [snopes.com]
Re:BRB (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:BRB (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re:BRB (Score:5, Informative)
Here's another hypotesis: Spain has the highest percentage of cocaine consumers of the world [wikipedia.org] (it even surpassed EEUU in 2005 or so). Drug in europe is introduced in our beachs, so here in spain it's quite cheap.
Parent
That explains Manuel (Score:2, Funny)
He's from Barcelona.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
C-K-What?
Who still breathes CITY air? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who still breathes CITY air? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
You're being ripped off (Score:2)
What about.... (Score:3)
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.
Less than a billionth of a gram per cubic meter (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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Don't knock it, people have made millions by working with similar concentrations [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:3)
Don't knock it, people have made millions by working with similar concentrations [wikipedia.org].
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.
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Under US law, the air would be illegal to knowingly possess.
But then, so is Beef (contains GHB).
http://www.ceri.com/cti.htm [ceri.com]
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
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.
Did she believe you?
Re: (Score:3, 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 [bbc.co.uk] 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.
Re: (Score:2)
They didn't detect LSD, they detected lysergic acid. Lysergic acid is used in the production of LSD so most likely they happened to air near a clandestine lab.
Methinks a weekend in Madrid is in order :)
Hmm (Score:2)
According to the picture, Nicoderm CQ is the new smack.
Prague (Score:2)
And, in Prague you would probably smell old beer belches?
Re:Prague (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.
Parent
higher (Score:2)
So, the higher you go, the higher you get?
Only coked out scientists (Score:2, Funny)
Would be arrogant enough to name their operation "Superior Council".
Not "Anglo-Saxon" Enough (Score:2)
Would be arrogant enough to name their operation "Superior Council".
They should have gone with "Higher Body".
Molecular weight (Score:5, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Especially since one trip is only around 100 micrograms or so ...
But the article said "lysergic acid -- a relative of LSD ..." so it might just as like have been something
not related to drug use. Lots of ergot-infected grass around?
Makes me wonder... (Score:3, Funny)
Is it still legal to breathe there?
Homeopathy (Score:2)
So, it's basically 15X [wikipedia.org] cocaine, except diluted in air instead of water. Must be a great buzz. The downside: it's so addictive you die within minutes as soon as you stop breathing.
Almost all low cost downtown apartment buildings.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Diabolical laughter (Score:5, Funny)
Nobody expects the spanish intoxication!
Unreported marijuana pollen levels (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.
Take It To The Limit (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.
Time has come to end the insanity (Score:4, Insightful)
Know what they call a cubic meter of air in Spain? (Score:5, Funny)
A Royale.
So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Funny)
The rain in Spain will be full of cocaine?
Just Shows How Good Analysis is.. (Score:4, Informative)
Now here's something else to panic about: There are detectable levels of plutonium and other fallout from 1950's nuclear tests in the average human body. Also, there are detectable levels of nearly every toxin in nearly every substance, if you actually have good enough equipment.
Picograms per cubic meter ain't much.
Re: (Score:2)
besides, all of that cocaine in the air has to pass through the scrubbers
Awesome! I didn't even think about that when I wrote the original post! Honest!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How would LSD get into the air? People don't snort it, and smoking it would destroy it.
Re: (Score:3, 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 [wikipedia.org] 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.