Amy Booth 
Media outlets around the world have reported that former One Direction star Liam Payne consumed “pink cocaine” before he fell to his death at a Buenos Aires hotel on October 15. But how can investigators tell — and what is pink cocaine, anyway? Here’s what you need to know about the substance.
It’s important to note that so far, reports that Payne took pink cocaine are based on anonymous sources. Argentine prosecutors haven’t announced any conclusions beyond last week’s preliminary autopsy, so this claim isn’t official yet. The full results for toxicology tests typically take around two weeks, according to University of Buenos Aires toxicology professor Carlos Damin.
Despite its name, pink cocaine is not chemically related to cocaine. It’s also known as tusi or tusibi, because it is often confused with the hallucinogenic drug 2C-B — but it’s not related to that, either. Pink cocaine is actually a cocktail of drugs, the precise ingredients of which vary from dealer to dealer. It’s often expensive and associated with higher socioeconomic classes.
“They call it pink cocaine because people sniff it,” Damin said. Real 2C-B is a “cousin of amphetamines and MDMA,” he added.
In Argentina, it usually contains MDMA (also known as ecstasy or molly) or derivatives of methamphetamines combined with a hallucinogen such as ketamine or LSD, according to Damin. It is colored with food coloring, strawberry flavoring, or even raspberry jelly, one harm reduction specialist told the Herald.
Since it’s not a specific drug, investigators would not be able to do a specific test for pink cocaine, noted Damin, who is not involved in the investigation into Payne’s death. However, tests could detect that someone had consumed both ketamine and MDMA. If investigators also saw what appeared to be a pink powder drug in the hotel room where Payne was staying, that could lead them to conclude that he’d consumed the cocktail.
According to Colombian drug harm reduction NGO Échele Cabeza, people have been consuming pink cocaine on a large scale since at least 2010. However, it exploded in the South American party scene after the Colombian magazine Semana reported in 2012 that 2C-B was a pricey hot commodity favored by the elites.
You may also be interested in: High society: 350kg drug seizure in Salta reflects Argentina’s growing cocaine use
Échele Cabeza warned that this had the effect of “marketing” the drug. “We saw how in a matter of weeks, the drug trafficking market adjusted, prepared, falsified a substance that people were asking for just because it was the drug of ‘models, queens, actors, and politicians,’” the organization said in 2018. The substance that dealers concocted in response rarely, if ever, contains 2C-B, and only ever in minimal quantities.
Since then, pink cocaine, or tusi, has proliferated all over South America. The first police raid of a so-called “pink cocaine lab” in Argentina was in 2021, and dealers offering the substance were arrested in Bolivia and Paraguay in the same year.
Pink cocaine and the elevator shaft mystery
One of the most striking cases involving pink cocaine in recent years in Argentina was that of Brazilian medicine student Ana Karolina Fernández.
In September of 2020, she and her boyfriend headed to his friend’s flat after a night out partying. They drank into the small hours, after which Fernández fell asleep, and the two men decided to move to a different room, according to their statements to the police.
When they returned, Fernández had disappeared. Alarmed, they started to look for her. She was nowhere to be found, but they noticed something strange: the elevator door was open, but the elevator itself was not there.
Firefighters found Fernández’s body at the bottom of the elevator shaft later that day. She had fallen from the fourteenth floor and died of her injuries.
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Fernández’s death was launched. Some media outlets reported that pink cocaine was found at the property, although police later denied this. The judiciary later said that she appeared to have died in an accident after the elevator failed while she was under the influence of alcohol. There is no evidence that she had consumed the drug before her death.
Dangers of pink cocaine
The drugs typically found in pink cocaine can cause serious problems, including psychosis, heart arrhythmia, and serotonin syndrome, according to Damin, who served as head of toxicology at the Buenos Aires Fernández Hospital for 18 years.
He also warned that MDMA in Argentina is often adulterated. A common adulterant is the stimulant cathinone, which scientists believe causes the psychoactive effects of khat, a leaf that is cultivated and chewed in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
Adulteration isn’t limited to MDMA: in February 2022, 24 people died, and more than 80 were hospitalized in Greater Buenos Aires after consuming adulterated cocaine.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, help is available. In Argentina, you can phone the 24/7 141 helpline, and in Buenos Aires City you can call 108 (select option three for assistance regarding addictions specifically)
