The police are investigating the death of a 14-year-old boy that occurred last Friday in Getafe (Madrid), supposedly after ingesting a can of Red Bull with two grams of so-called pink cocaine or tusi. The events took place around ten at night in front of the Los Espartales metro station, where the victim, a resident of Madrid, and two friends had met other young people on Instagram. In the first instance it emerged that these people secretly put the drug in the drink, but another version, based on the story of his friends, indicates that Ryan took the drug voluntarily.
The boy collapsed. Within minutes he suffered cardiorespiratory arrest and died. The autopsy performed over the weekend tested positive for toxic substances. According to witnesses, everything points to pink cocaine – which is not cocaine –, also called tusi or tusibí by the acronym 2C-B in English, but it does not usually contain 2C-B, a synthetic derivative of amphetamines. Pink cocaine is not a substance, but a mixture of substances that attempts to emulate the psychedelic effects of 2C-B. The most common combines ketamine, MDMA (ecstasy) and caffeine, but the proportions are highly variable, according to the samples analyzed by Energy Control, an organization dedicated to promoting responsible use of narcotics.
“Depending on who manufactures it and how we are finding certain substances or others. There is a great variety of compositions and proportions, which tells us that there are many manufacturers, because mixing is much easier than synthesizing a substance. Then they add coloring and sweet flavoring; It is a drug that they know for its taste and color, but they are totally added things,” explains pharmacist Mireia Ventura, coordinator of the Energy control analysis service. In her opinion there is a powerful marketing strategy behind this drug, until recently related to exclusivity and the upper classes. “They have given it the reputation of a new drug when it is a mixture of known drugs. Thus it has been sold very expensive, at 100 euros per gram in 2022 (cocaine was valued at 60 euros), but it is going down and is becoming popular outside the elite,” explains Ventura.
It is difficult to determine the prevalence of tusi consumption. The latest statistics from the Spanish Observatory of Drugs and Addictions indicate that 0.5% of the population between 15 and 64 years old has tried it, with a higher prevalence in the group from 24 to 34, making it a “minority phenomenon”. Although experts appreciate an increase in interest in these substances and environments where synthetic drugs such as MDMA, cocaine or amphetamines are consumed. A study by Energy Control indicates that it is usually consumed by snorting the powder, while partying and with friends, and the places where it is consumed the most are clubs and rave parties. It is a fairly occasional consumption: three out of four consumers admit to having taken it only between 1 and 5 times in the preceding twelve months.
The causes of consumption, according to Ventura: “It gives you stimulation because there is caffeine, a feeling of being comfortable because it contains ecstasy, and a feeling of letting go due to the dissociative effect of a psychedelic like ketamine.”
The danger is that you don’t know what you are consuming. Tusi is the most unstable product that Energy Control is analyzing, even more than cocaine with its adulterations. And its effects depend greatly on the substances and proportions that compose it. “You don’t know what they are consuming, it’s like playing Russian roulette,” describes Guillermo Burillo, an expert in toxicology and professor at the European University in the Canary Islands.
In any case, assuming that the victim had consumed 2 grams, it is a barbaric dose. And mixing an energy drink with a stimulant such as MDMA (possible component of cough) increases toxicity. Cardiovascular damage is inevitable. “The composition of tusi itself is the mixture of 3 or more different substances. Therefore, adding one more increases the risks,” says Energy Control.