\n<\/p>\n
Who is<\/em> she? That\u2019s the question on everyone\u2019s mind when it comes to the drug known as \u201cpink cocaine,\u201d which has gotten a bump largely thanks to its celebrity connections. It\u2019s been mentioned multiple times in the trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/strong><\/a>, with one producer saying in a 2024 complaint<\/a> that the musician had ordered him to have it on hand at all times; an ex-girlfriend, Yung Miami<\/strong>, was arrested for carrying it in 2023<\/a>. More recently, New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs<\/strong> was caught on video<\/a> over Memorial Day weekend aboard a yacht flashing baggies of an unidentified pink powder and referring to himself as \u201cMr. Make It Happen on a Boat,\u201d sparking rumors that it was the drug. (Diggs later told reporters<\/a> that he had \u201chad a conversation with [Patriots coach Mike] Vrabel<\/strong>, obviously, and I\u2019ll echo everything he said hoping everybody is making good decisions\u2026Everything else is everything else. The particulars are all internal.\u201d) Cardi B<\/strong> was photographed on said boat too. Pink cocaine was also found (with other drugs) in Liam Payne\u2019s bloodstream in a toxicology report<\/a> following his 2024 death after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.<\/p>\n If nobody seems to really know what pink cocaine is<\/em>, beyond its memorable name and hue, that\u2019s because, well, nobody really knows. Consider the up-and-coming party drug the Anna Delvey<\/strong><\/a> of nose candy: Its backstory is rich, hazy, and nigh impossible to fact-check with total confidence.<\/p>\n Pink cocaine<\/a>, sometimes called \u201ctusi,\u201d \u201ctuci,\u201d or \u201ctusibi,\u201d is indeed pink, but the pharmacological makeup is not always certain: it usually includes ketamine, and rarely actually contains cocaine<\/a>. The formula varies from batch to batch, so results of using it can vary widely, and could even be fatal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a drug, it\u2019s a drug concoction,\u201d says Joseph Palamar,<\/strong> an associate professor of population health at NYU Langone. \u201cPink cocaine can<\/em> contain cocaine, but it\u2019s almost always a mixture of ketamine and other drugs.\u201d Palamar, who has spent his career researching party drugs, told Vanity Fair<\/em> that pink cocaine has been on the rise since late 2019<\/a> or so, likely thanks to ease of production, variability of formulas, and name recognition.<\/p>\n In addition to the ketamine, \u201cpink cocaine\u201d may also include MDMA, caffeine, fentanyl, meth, or other substances\u2014dealer\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could call anything Tusi, the same way you could call anything cocaine,\u201d Palamar says. Think \u201ca rose by any other name,\u201d but inside out and about drugs. He also pointed out that while the mixture likely has its origins in Latin America, based on analyzed samples, pink cocaine isn\u2019t something that really has to be imported, because \u201cany shithead could make it.\u201d (Definitionally, cocaine is made from the leaves of the coca plant and making it is a complex, multi-step process.)<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t recommend<\/em> that anyone make it, but that\u2019s that. There have been very big seizures, like off the shore of somewhere in California over a year ago. But typically it can be made here. Ketamine should be the main drug in it, so if you have access to ketamine, then you could probably make it. You [just] need the dye.\u201d<\/p>\n The dye may be food coloring, or other additives. Alex Krotulski<\/strong>, another researcher and forensic toxicologist, told Vanity Fair<\/em> that he\u2019s even heard rumors of people using Kool-Aid to give their mixtures that distinctive rosy hue. (Thank reddit for this one: What do you call it when you snort Kool-Aid? A punchline<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Krotulski, who is the director of toxicology and chemistry at the Center for Forensic Science Research Education<\/a>, spends his time analyzing samples of all kinds\u2014\u201cpills, powders, plant materials, biological samples, blood, urine, saliva, anything you can imagine\u201d\u2014to decode their drug contents.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to know what drugs are out there, what drug combinations there are, what people are using, what’s new and emerging, what’s going away,\u201d he says. Through tracking the samples, the center\u2019s work can help identify trending drugs and what to look out for in the landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cThe term \u2018pink cocaine\u2019 is really the street name of the drug,\u201d Krotulski says. \u201cI would equate it to how people talk about opioids: People talk about dope, but dope could be heroin, it could be fentanyl, it could be other opioids. It could be no opioids at all. Who knows? They could buy something that actually doesn\u2019t contain opioids. And that\u2019s kind of the same theory with pink cocaine. It’s something that’s easy for people to understand and physically see. It’s kind of a sexy term, I think, much more than other names that drugs get at times.\u201d<\/p>\n Why pink? Why not<\/em> pink?<\/p>\n To add to the intrigue and confusion, pink cocaine\u2019s alter ego, Tusi, implies relation to another, very different drug.<\/p>\n In 1974, hallucinogen pioneer Alexander Shulgin was the first to synthesize a compound known as 2C-B, often called simply \u201c2C\u201d for its family tree of related compounds. He developed it for use in psychotherapy, but recreational use of the drug (sometimes called Nexus) became a popular rave drug in the \u201890s, often as a substitute for Ecstasy. Eventually, it became harder to obtain. Now try saying \u201c2C\u201d out loud: \u201cTusi.\u201d<\/p>\n