Video translation is as follows:
Reporter: Calavera, a well known drug dealer in Medellin agreed to let us into his clandestine kitchen of Tusi. A drug cocktail that has become popular even among minors. He has been selling this mixture for five years and is accountable to La Oficina. One of the criminal organizations that controls micro-trafficking in the capital of Antioquia.
Calavera: That is why there is so much war here in the neighborhoods. Because, because this is the latest vice at the moment. Teenagers don't even smoke marijuana to try it. They all get into it to try Tusi, mostly minors. Those are the ones who are moving this.
Reporter: We recorded this video at 6:50 in the morning at a clandestine party for minors in Medellín. The DJ is 11 years old and the rest of the attendees are no older than 16. For hours they consumed Tusi causing some adolescents to pass out at the party. The place has positioned itself as an unrestricted space to consume this cocktail of high-risk psychoactive substances. It is a Tusi outlet for minors controlled by criminal gangs. Calavera starts frying, as he calls the process, veterinary analgesics such as ketamine with more than eight substances in glass ampoules and adhesive bags. In the kitchen of the house where he lives with his wife and children he produces daily some of the Tusi that is marketed in the area. He says that his recipe contains ecstasy, fentanyl, caffeine, clonazepam, among other substances.
Calavera: There are people who add methadone, there are people who add heroin. There are people who add heroin to Tusi because that son of a bitch is a basic additive. In my case, for example, I don't use it for my own consumption, it's for sale, because I'm not going to be so stupid as to get myself addicted to both drugs. So, we don’t replace heroin with fentanyl. Unfortunately, that's the way we as human beings are. You don't give too much thought about your neighbors. I don't think of myself as the person who makes you read into all of this. It’s not my job to enlighten you on this matter.
Reporter: Échale Cabeza and the University of Caldas analyzed 25 samples of Tusi and 56 samples of MDMA or Ecstasy collected in Bogota and Medellin. As for the appearance of the samples analyzed, the most common color was pink followed by purple, yellow and white. Caffeine and ketamine were present in 24 of the 25 samples. MDMA was present in 22 samples, making the interaction between stimulation and sedation one of the main effects of Tusi.
Julian Quintero: The lack of knowledge of what they are mixing with the dosage of what they are doing and the mixtures of what makes it when they consume. Well, it makes it I believe right now the highest risk substance of consumption in the country. This is very similar keeping all proportions to what is happening with fentanyl in the United States that one of the main reasons for death is associated with people not knowing the dosage of fentanyl in the substance that comes. Here basically people are totally unaware of the substances that compose it and they don't know the dosage of each of those substances. The Tusibi, this pink powder is already a mixture of substances and apart from that, when people are partying or in situations of high consumption, they consume other substances. So it is a very high risk poly-consumption. For example, mixing this Tusibi substance, which contains opioids and benzodiazepines, with another nervous system depressant such as alcohol. Well, it is highly risky for health. And there are already known cases of deaths in Colombia where these substances have been found in combination in people's bodies.
Reporter: In 1974 chemist Alexander Shulgin synthesized for the first time the substance 2CB. A phenylethylamine with psychedelic and stimulant effects derived from amphetamine in the 1990s. It had a massive exposure in European discotheques and was marketed under the name of Nexus. It landed in Colombia at the end of the 2000s when national traffickers smuggled it from Europe and began to sell it at very high prices. Some media popularized it as the luxury drug or the drug of the elite. In the country it was marketed as Tusi or Tusibi because of the English pronunciation of the acronym of the original substances. Over time, traffickers began to mix it with other components. They added cooking colorants and essences to make it more tolerable for human consumption.
Edwin Javier: In general terms, the panorama of synthetic substances in Colombia and in particular in the Bogota region has been increasing in recent years. The laboratory has detected and identified different types of NPS substances. New psychoactive substances are on the rise and with concern we see in the laboratory that there are more and more cases related to MDMA, Ketamine, NPS (new psychoactive substances), and types oe and oc of Tusibi.
Reporter: Calavera’s batch of frying didn’t last more than an hour and a half and it yielded 16 points or grams of Tusi ready to sell. The price of each depending on the sector is between 60,000 and 120,000pesos. Compared to other psychoactive substances each dot of this mixture costs at least 10 times more than a gram of cocaine which in the area is 6000 pesos. At the beginning of each month Calavera must pay 500 thousand pesos to La Oficina to be allowed to distribute Tusi. If he does not comply he is charged a fine of 5 million pesos. The same thing happens with the vendors who are not authorized by this criminal gang.
Calavera: You have to have a person who gives you permission and pay that person to let you work. The bosses of the neighborhoods that control the area give you permission to sell or work. In France, Mexico, United States, Chile, Ecuador, Europe, Spain, Italy, they do it everywhere.
Reporter: One of the most important findings of the study was the presence of Oxycodone in six samples. A type of substance that had not been previously reported. It is the third opioid after heroin and fentanyl that has contributed to the most overdose deaths in the United States. However, these cases also involve combinations with other Benzodiazepine opioids and alcohol. We brought two bags of Tusi to Échale Cabeza for analysis. One came from Calavera's clandestine kitchen in Medellín and the other we got for 80 thousand pesos in a well known park in the northeast of Bogota.
Cristian Gordillo: In this type of analysis, for me it’s bad, the first thing I would say is that I find the presence of Ketamine and I find the presence of many other things that are not usual within the Tusi here. My advice would automatically be not to consume it because first of all you are subjecting yourself to a substance that you don’t know what kind of toxicity it can generate in your body. Secondly and most likely you can't control a bad trip from a substance that you automatically don't know. And you don't know how long you are going to last with this effect. And already from there it starts to trigger many things let's say inside the person.
Reporter: The scenes of Tusi consumption are repeated throughout the country leaving several questions. Because if the consumption of this mixture is so evident, the issue becomes part of the public debate. What are the real health impacts generated by this type of mixtures and what can be done to mitigate the risks and damages of a young population that uses these substances? In 2022 alone more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. And two-thirds of these deaths are attributed to fentanyl, representing a major risk to public health in that country.
La famosa rosa pastel
ReplyDeleteThey should replace the t with a p to increase sales.
ReplyDeleteYa but am I also the only one who thinks it’s dumb af to call it “tucibi” making it sound exactly like 2CB when said out loud? Seems sus
DeletePeople literally take anything to catch a buzz. I guess kids are the only ones think they will never die and that’s why they keep buying it. It sounds like an autopsy report hearing all the different substances in it. Speedballs will kill you. Only old heads know what I’m talking about.
ReplyDeleteNot really. How many people do you know getting high on Brugmansia for instance, even though it’s very powerful and ubiquitous. Some stuff just isn’t worth it
DeleteWell as a “head” I don’t know what you’re talking about really. Speedballs are only dangerous if you take too much of either one of the drugs but the synergy of stimulants and opioids isn’t really some great physical medical risk. Mixing opioids with alcohol is way more dangerous than “speedballing” (opioids + coke/stimulants). People just gotta know how to dose right and not be ‘fooled’ by the stim masking the effect of the downer in certain ways, which it will. Coke is short so you may have to redose it if things start getting too heavy with the downers after it wears off. You just have to balance the beam and time their offsets close together if dosing is higher than usual. And ya some of the Tuci indigents sound like autopsy reports, especially the one that contained both fentanyl and clonazepam however granted, the MDMA will ironically enough probably keep the user conscious if there’s not too much fent present. Taking multiple downers of varying doses and letting yourself fall “asleep” is a big no no. May never wake up. So staying awake can be enough to save you at times technically.
DeleteIt isn’t necessarily the more drugs the more dangerous, more so just which drugs and which ones are mixing/synergizing. A stim + 2 downers is actually safer than just the 2 downers of the same dose taken together with no stim because the CNS is overly depressed so it can be kind of misleading when you read combinations that appear to have dangerous mixes but then realize there’s also another one or two in there pretty much counteracting certain fundamental effects and pulling the pharmodynamics in an opposing direction.
It isn’t necessarily the more drugs the more dangerous, more so just which drugs and which ones are mixing/synergizing. A stim + 2 downers is actually safer than just the 2 downers of the same dose taken together with no stim because the CNS is overly depressed so it can be kind of misleading
DeleteUmmmm absolutely unequivocally wrong… Misleading… Your whole post is misleading There is no safe way to take stimulants and depressants together some people, depending upon their metabolism, and their tolerance can take stimulants and depressants together and not experience any fatal interactions. I can’t tell you how many of my friends are dead from doing heroin and cocaine back in the 70s and 80s, just ask John Belushi I guess he didn’t have your magic formula. It’s obvious you have zero knowledge of organic chemistry or basically no knowledge of chemistry at all.
11:56 Then you have no idea what you’re talking about because these are facts. You don’t know what the word “misleading” means clearly.. It is a unequivocal fact that the vast majority of downers make the vast majority of stimulants safer. SafER.. not “safe” necessarily. As I said, if you are overdosing on cocaine or amphetamines one of the first things they’re gonna do at the hospital is give you something like ativan obviously. This isn’t rocket science or specious reasoning. They have opposing effects on the central nervous system which evidently balances things out. Downers will only reduce the seizure and tachycardia potential of stimulants, not make them worse or keep them the same. And as I ALSO already stated before, people have survived massive doses of stimulants simply because they were also on downers and vice versa. This is not debatable. This is how the central nervous system works.
Delete5 lines of cocaine + 0.5 - 1mg of Xanax is medically safer than just taking 5 lines of cocaine by itself. That is the point here, and it’s not debatable. It’s not that downers + stims are automatically safe and harmless. They’re just LESS harmful again.. given a few exceptions like alcohol.
People die from speedballing because they overdo the heroin because the stimulant is masking the effect. That’s a behavioral mishap, not a biological inherent outcome. If someone dies from a speedball due to the heroin (which is usually the case) that same dose of heroin would kill the person even faster if there was no stimulant involved. An x amount of heroin will not make an x amount of cocaine anymore dangerous than it is on its own. Downers + stimulants obviously do not protect you from death but they protect you more than if these things are taken by themselves and in the same dosage. Not that complicated bro. You act like I’m over here saying downers + stims are perfectly safe and harmless or something. I’m pointing out mere physiological realities. Taking a downer would notably raise the amount of the stimulant you would have to take in order to die.
11:56 Also it’s pharmacology/physiology, not “chemistry” smart ass lol. The way CNS stimulants interact with CNS depressants in a users body is clearly pharmacology.
DeleteSounds disgusting mixing uppers with downers. I used too take all these drugs separately. Now they mix them into a pink powder and sell it for crazy prices. Caffeine is dirt cheap, you can keep that headache. I see someone mentioned speedballs and that’s been around for ages. Like I bought $1 speedballs(mix of drugs) in HongKong 1990. Benzodiazepines with cocaine. Up and down same time, no thanks. Go uppers for 5e party and then the next day go downers for a good sleep. I’m getting old now.
ReplyDeletethe thing about a speedball is you gotta regulate the heroin/coke mix just right..
Deletedon't be a John Belushi and get greedy..
in general, if a drug doesn't originate from a plant source, it has no bidness being in your body..
It's national "Do Your Liver A Favor" week..
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I don’t understand why people have such a prejudice against “mixing uppers and downers” when it’s far, FAR more dangerous to mix uppers with other uppers or downers with other downers. That is where people get into serious trouble. Or when they just don’t get the durations lined up correctly and the stimulant wears off before the downer(s) and so they are left with too much CNS depression instead of it just balancing out like when the stimulant was working.
DeletePeople have actually survived very high doses of stimulants that should’ve been lethal simply because they were also on a CNS depressant (downer) at the same time. The only real exception to this that I can think of off the top of my head would be alcohol; in that it’s a downer but does it make stimulants any ‘safer’ like most downers do. If you go to the hospital overdosing on cocaine or speed, literally one of the first things they’ll give you 90% or more of the time is a benzodiazepine like Ativan.
8:46 Literally the most dangerous drugs known to man come from plants.. Scopolamine, solanine, aconitine, pseudaconitine, etc..
Delete@10:23pm I'm amazed at how many people equate "natural" with "good." Mother Nature is all things. A killer and a nurturer in equal measure.
Deleteyep, you're right, getting eaten by a shark is "natural" but sure as shit ain't "good" for you, jaja.
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And what exactly is “disgusting” about it? It smooths things out.. If you think that’s disgusting try mixing multiple stimulants with each other.
DeleteYes, using your moronic method of controlling stimulants and downers with each other is excellent and very healthy for your heart
Delete11:58 A downer + a stimulant is way better for the heart than just the stimulant would be by itself if we’re talking about the same dosage of the stimulant being used in both situations. With the exception of alcohol and maybe one or two other obscure substances. If you’re on something like Xanax or heroin (assuming duration is controlled) that automatically means the amount of cocaine needed to kill you is literally higher because of the Xanax or heroin directly counteracting the physiological mechanisms which make the stimulant dangerous in the first place; such as heart rate, seizure threshold and just general CNS (over)stimulation. A typical downer will raise the lethal dose for basically any stimulant automatically. Obviously you can still die and synching up the durations is also key. If someone was ODing on coke and had a downer on hand like Xanax, not taking the Xanax would practically be suicide and/or far more dangerous than just sitting there doing nothing and letting cocaine’s stimulation on the body go unchallenged.
Deletehttps://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/the-pink-cocaine-wave/62987efdc349003d6979bc51
ReplyDeleteVice is great and all. Unfortunately they have the tendency of stealing other people's work and trying to pass it off as their own.
DeleteVice is bullshit in that regard, you got that right.
DeleteBB always footnotes the sources...
that shows class..
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Well Vice is filing for Bankruptcy so there is that jajaja
ReplyDeletePoison venders not to entertain, but to control, how far are the victims going to go? It was never about enhance experience, its all about the lure of self enslavement, if sold as the best suicide ingredient, fools take it, producers deserve ley fuga.
ReplyDelete