Much of the worlds supply of Heroin comes through or near Afghanistan. What if an enterprising afghan terrorist did a straight swap for some high grade cocaine (Presumably they have the contacts to get hold of this, they have to sell their own drugs through someone) and cut it with anthrax. In all the news reports it has been a white powder so would be relativly hard to spot. Would be a nasty way to spread the disease, they could wipe out most of Hollywood in a single step!-- dare99, Oct 20 2001 The Grauniad http://www.guardian...273,4281979,00.htmlGuardian article on this very subject [hippo, Oct 20 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Gasmasks4U - buy a respirator http://www.gasmasks4u.com$250 to ensure that, once you've opened the envelope, the air you breathe is clean... [Aeroman, Oct 20 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Bush's Taliban-Aid http://www.google.c...22will+%2Bof+god%22<rant> Proud sponsor of global terrorism </rant> [Rant93, Oct 20 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Anthrax scare at tennis tournament http://www.boston.c...3/102301_tennis.htmWhite powdery substance turns out to be cocaine. Or is it ... ? [jutta, Oct 20 2001] Pretty slipshod targetting, I would think, inasmuch as you only infect drug users and have little control over which specific ones you get. One might do better manufacturing a bunch of tainted coffee creamer or sugar packets and having an operative place them in the Senate canteen. (Not that one wishes to prime the terrorists' creative pump, mind you.) I'm just glad the people disseminating Anthrax aren't using plague or smallpox or Ebola.-- Dog Ed, Oct 20 2001 I dunno, I was thinking of delivery systems that target the lungs through inhalation (although the coffee creamer idea would doutless make people v.ill all the same)-- dare99, Oct 20 2001 Not really a good idea from the point-of-view of a terrorist. Their aim is to create panic in the community. Killing a few addicts wouldn't attract that much attention. I could almost guarantee that some conservative sociopaths would even go so far as to praise the perpetrator(s).
Besides, what self-respecting dealer would want to kill off their customers?-- sdm, Oct 20 2001 dare99, I feel it is high time to inform you that 'Hollywood' considers cocaine passe. Except for Robert Downey Jr. of course.-- thumbwax, Oct 20 2001 //I dunno, I was thinking of delivery systems that target the lungs through inhalation //
What about putting it in cigarettes?-- Mayfly, Oct 20 2001 Dog Ed and Mayfly: Hot coffee or burning cigarettes would likely kill the spores. He has a 'good' idea here...many people who use coke would start dropping dead for no apparent reason...how many people use it secretly, and are going to have to explain how they got it?-- StarChaser, Oct 20 2001 Coffee kills spores? Maybe if it's brewed in an autoclave.-- cypherpunks, Oct 20 2001 Hey Star, You say: <<many people who use coke would start dropping dead for no apparent reason...how many people use it secretly, and are going to have to explain how they got it?>>
Seems to me if they use it how they goin' splain anything if they being dropdead?-- bobzaguy, Oct 20 2001, last modified Oct 24 2001 Afghanistan produces 75% of the worlds opium poppy crop. Opium poppies are used in manufacture of Heroin. Taliban interprets Quran as saying nothing about Opium and 'looks the other way' while taxing income of said crops. Cocaine is product of coca which is in South America, which is nowhere near Afghanistan. Heroin - Cocaine 'trades' of this order would be quite difficult particularly in light of the fact that so much surveillance is focused upon Afghanistan. Hopefully U.S. and Allied forces will be able to destroy a good deal of Opium crop and processed Opium during their stay as 'infidels' while in Afghanistan. If Colombian Cartels made trade with Taliban and something of the nature suggested by 'dare' were to occur, the middlemen would be executed - none of those individuals or groups stands to gain from this in any way - as Middlemen would not enjoy the wealth for long, if at all - given that it is a trade, and not a buy with profits on coke, finders fee, etc.. Colombian Cartels would not benefit either - they are in it for the money - and coke value would plunge as supply exceeds demand. So on and so forth. I feel as if I have wasted my time with this paragraph and will torpedo a fishbone at the smugglers speeding boat.-- thumbwax, Oct 21 2001 Bobzaguy: Well, I DID say 'start'...<grin>-- StarChaser, Oct 21 2001 My, what a horrible idea...-- snarfyguy, Oct 22 2001 As cocaine is such a social drug this would cause panic amongst young affluent urbanites. The idea that adding anthrax to cocaine would just kill a "few addicts" is out of touch with reality. Cocaine is pretty popular in the Square Mile, Wall Street and most significantly of all - the media. Once your average tabloid hack gets nervous, the stories they write will begin to reflect it, spreading their unease to the masses. Ahem - maybe.-- Redbrickterrace, Oct 22 2001 Not sure if your average tabloid hack would be able to write anything without any cocaine.-- Lemon, Oct 22 2001 See linked, mildly humourous Guardian article arguing that worldwide terrorism is bad business for drug dealers (i.e. marketing small envelopes full of white powder has become harder recently).-- hippo, Oct 23 2001 Anthrax infection resulting from sharing contaminated needles? Injection Anthrax? I wonder how long it would take that form to show some symptoms.
I agree with Dog_Ed on the relative inefficiency of this sniffable mode of spore dispersal. I'm also inclined to follow the lead of others who suggest that spores alone are a poor choice to endanger people, much less kill them. I guess it's an open question if hot coffee or burning cigarettes will deactivate plutonium, though.-- reensure, Oct 23 2001 I'm pretty sure that given the granularity of coke - no matter how finely it gets chopped up with the old razor-blade - if it gets snorted down into the lungs, then the Anthrax spores will go with it. Even if they get caught up in the coke-mucus snot at the back of the nasal cavity, the snowhead will be sniffing their hardest to try and get that loogy of gear sucked down. So I reckon this could be quite horribly effective. In my experience, [sdm] the majority of coke-users aren't junkie-style addicts but the sort of affluent urbanites that [Redbrickterrace] talks about... or even less-affluent hipsters who will get it as a 'special treat' instead of speed. These recreational drug users may well be friends or family to even the most conservative of us; I know I've been through my 'coke' period, and I'm neither a Hollywood star nor a fucked-up junkie. I think this might well create a wider panic than many people would expect.-- Guy Fox, Oct 24 2001 thumbwax: US paid $43million to the Taliban in May 2001 in exchange for a statement that growing opium is against the will of god. Check the link. I could buy a lot of box cutters for $43,000,000. That's a lot of zeroes and I'm not proud to count my tax dollars among them.
Heck. If we'd have started putting anthrax in cocaine a few years back, maybe we'd have a different president now.-- Rant93, Oct 25 2001 Har! funny observation, [rant93]!-- snarfyguy, Oct 26 2001 You all beat me to the punch. "At least it would take care of Bush..." That'll teach me to slack off!-- Legend, Oct 26 2001 Anthrax in cocaine? No way. Cocaine is used as anesthesia by doctors for many types of surgery. I hope that anthrax never gets into cocaine--it might hinder surgical practices. I am not a doctor or a medical practicioner, just one who is interested in issues pertaining to health care.-- JoeBader1, Nov 02 2001 Even the Al Queda network wouldn't taint their own supply. If heroin users started dying, no one would import their heroin, hence, no money for the cause. Coke comes from Columbia, South America. Why would they go after coke? It goes through sensitive connections, all intertwined. I'm sorry, but some Taliban guy would be filtered out and killed if he got near a supply of coca. They would have to buy a kilo, make the actual drug connections, etc, etc. too complicated, and not effective. While I thought of the Anthrax in the Coke thing, it's preposterous. I still think the dust cropping over a major city would cause some major panic and deaths than waiting to sell coke on the streets to addicts and partiers. Word gets around quick and people would move to ecstasy, heroin or speed. I deleted the *new idea* messed up, thanks...-- sirvipe, Nov 15 2001 If someone would plant a non-fatal agent such as chickenpox or Radium into a load of illegal drugs, it would sure help the cops figure out the supply chain.
Got Radium?-- blainez, Mar 14 2002 Damn it, my cover's been blown-- dare99, Jul 14 2002 NARC!-- 15420, Nov 28 2002 random, halfbakery