Yikes!

       Samples from a River in Italy Show Deluge of Cocaine

   Water samples from the river Po in northern Italy show a huge amount of cocaine usage by the upstream population. This is the same region that has recently been in the news because of 'immigration problems'. Problems like theft, rape and murder.

                               Do you suppose there's a connection?

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Italian river 'full of cocaine'

The results suggested cocaine was in regular use in the areas tested Scientists have found large quantities of cocaine residue in a river in northern Italy - suggesting consumption is much higher than previously thought. They say they found the equivalent of 40,000 doses a day in the Po valley, home to about five million people. The study, published by the UK's Environmental Health magazine, tests sewage and rivers for levels of a by-product of cocaine metabolism. The team say the test has to be refined before being applied on a vast scale. The chemical found in the urine of cocaine users is called benzoylecgonine, or BE. It is produced only by metabolising cocaine. 'Staggering' The new report suggests that past studies of cocaine use in Italy - mainly based on population surveys and crime statistics - had been optimistic. According to official estimates, people living around the Po consume about 15,000 doses of cocaine a month. But the research claims more than three times as much cocaine is used in the area. The team, led by Dr Ettore Zuccato from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, said they were taken aback by their findings, whose economic impact they described as "staggering". "The large amount of cocaine (at least 1,500 kg/3,307lb) that our findings suggest are consumed per year in the River Po basin would amount... to about $150m (£84m) in street value," the scientists wrote in the journal. They hope that in the near future, they will be able to develop similar tests in order to assess the true number of cannabis and heroin users. ...BBC

Comments

[Phoenix]

BBC August 5, 2005 Kate Clark

Authorities have discovered that Italians pee in the Po. It seems Italians, in the haze of happy hoydenism of cocaine consumption, care naught for the futures of fish and whip out their wankers to wizz in the Po. Indeed, authorities have found local sardine catches somewhat striking in that the eyes of the tiny, tasty fish are somewhat larger than their heads. Authorities are putting together a task force to study the possibilities of what might happen to fish if zonked Italians start to poo in the Po. Lorenzo de Capasticheia de la Morono, Second Emissary to the Primary Emissary for Fish and Water Concerns, said in a phone call to our news desk: "We do not care about cocaine use. We are happy people who love love and love anything to make love lovelier. We are, however, most concerned about pee and poo in the Po. We love our fish. Italy is all about love, you see."

[mdmhvonpa]

YIKES and YUCK.

[Steel Turman]

I neglected to mention that the Po valley is analogous to Birmingham in Britain or New Jersey ... an industrial area with lots of jobs for immigrants. It's also the place where there's a move to castrate rapists by the local legislature.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!!