Cutting agents in cocaine: A temporal study of the period 2015-2017 in the Northern Region of Colombia

Cocaine is a naturally occurring psychostimulant drug available worldwide. Drug trafficking networks adulterate pure cocaine with cutting agents to increase their earnings. This study presents a descriptive statistical analysis of the cutting agents found in 2118 cocaine samples that were seized in the Northern Region of Colombia (in the period 2015-2017). The data used in this study was drawn from the GC-MS analytical reports of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences -Colombia, Northern Region. Results showed diverse cutting agents in seized cocaine samples, from which the most commonly used are caffeine, phenacetin, lidocaine, imidazole and levamisole. In addition, cocaine samples showed different mixtures of the above cutting agents, predominantly caffeine/phenacetin and caffeine/lidocaine/ phenacetin mixtures. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This study conducted a descriptive statistical analysis of cutting agents found in 2118 seized cocaine samples in the Northern Region of Colombia from 2015 to 2017. The most commonly used cutting agents in these samples include caffeine, phenacetin, lidocaine, imidazole and levamisole. The cocaine samples showed different mixtures of cutting agents, with caffeine/phenacetin and caffeine/lidocaine/phenacetin being the predominant mixtures.