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Police have issued a warning of a batch of cocaine so strong it could kill users – with some coke found to be 100 per cent pure.

Most street cocaine is heavily cut with adulterants such as glucose (sugar) and benzocaine (a dental anaesthetic) – with a Vice report suggesting London cocaine is rarely more than 25 per cent pure.

People are being ‘Winstoned’ by new £5 notes after snorting coke

Police in Eastbourne issued a warning to drug users about the cocaine, according to the Eastbourne Herald.

Detective Inspector Neil Ralph said, ‘Taking drugs in any form is dangerous, particularly when the user does not know the purity of the drug.


‘We investigate all drug overdoses and drug-related deaths and look to identify who has supplied the drugs and seek a prosecution.’



Reports from the Global Drug Survey in 2015 suggested that the purity of cocaine in Britain was climbing – due to ‘darkweb’ drug dealers who compete with each other to deliver high-quality product.

Drugwise says, ‘The two tier market in cocaine continues with prices at ‘student’, ‘pub dust’ or ‘monkey dust’ purity (the name depends on location) at around 40% and costing about £30-£40 a gram going up to around £80 a gram for purity in excess of 70%.’

Be sure not to get Winstoned by the new £5 notes Getty The new plastic notes have been leaving people with cut noses after they use them to sniff the drug. In the new phenomenon – called ‘getting Winstoned’ due to Churchill’s image appearing on the note – drug users are opening themselves up to all kind of infections. The new texture of the new plastic note is a lot stiffer than the previous five-pound-notes which went out of circulation last Friday. One Birmingham cocaine user, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I thought I was the only person to have had my nose cut by the new fiver. ‘But when I told my friend how I was in agony he said I had been “Winstoned” and it was happening to everyone.’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Ouch – Jack Nicholson had to bear the pain of a ‘nostril nick’ in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning 1974 film Chinatown after being slashed by thugs (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock) He said: ‘Everyone thought the new fivers were God’s gift to sniffing at the start because they roll up perfectly and if you are sharing the note it is not too bad if someone walks off with it. ‘Now I suppose now people are realising if something seems too good to be true then it usually is.’ The news gets worse for those who have been ‘Winstoned’ as it could increase the spread of infection amongst users. On the West Berkshire Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Service website a warning was posted concerning sharing bank notes for sniffing drugs. The warning said: ‘If you are sharing straws or notes the blood from the previous person can be absorbed through the nose lining along with the drug. ‘If this blood is infected with Hep C or HIV there is a risk of spreading the infection. The risk increases with greater damage on the inside of the nose and the more you use.’