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- LONDON (Reuters) - More than
99 percent of the bank notes in circulation in London are tainted with
cocaine, an investigation commissioned by the BBC showed on Monday.
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- The study, carried out by forensic chemists Mass Spec
Analytical, tested more than 500 notes of various denominations and only
four showed no trace of the drug.
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- ``Once you've taken a snort, the compounds will be in
the oils of your skin and get transferred to notes you handle. That's the
way the cocaine gets on to the notes,'' said Mass Spec spokesman Joe Reevy.
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- The study also showed that at least four percent of the
notes gave a massive reading, showing they had been in close contact with
the white powder and had probably been used for snorting the drug.
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- The price of cocaine has dropped from about 80 pounds
($133) a gram to 40, making it a popular weekend pursuit for drug users
who had previously only dabbled with ``soft'' drugs.
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- Its popularity has also risen among teenagers, in part
due to scare stories about the clubbing drug ecstasy.
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