What is 'pink cocaine', the drug found in Liam Payne's system following his death?

An initial toxicology report revealed that former One Direction singer Liam Payne had multiple drugs in his system, including “pink cocaine,” when he fell to his death.

An initial toxicology report revealed that former One Direction singer Liam Payne had multiple drugs in his system, including “pink cocaine,” when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires.

Here’s what to know about the drug cocktail.

Pink cocaine is typically a powdery mix of ketamine and illegal substances such as methamphetamine, MDMA (also called molly or ecstasy), opioids or new psychoactive substances, according to a study published last year in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. The drug cocktail may also contain caffeine, according to the National Capital Poison Center (NCPC).

Despite its name, the recreational drug may not contain cocaine at all and gets its color from food coloring. And although it is also referred to as tusi, tusibi, tuci or tucibi, experts say it rarely contains the psychedelic drug 2C-B developed by California chemist Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin and his wife, Ann, in 1974, part of a 2C family of drugs related to methamphetamine.

The anesthetic ketamine appears to be the active ingredient most commonly found in “pink cocaine.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pink-cocaine-liam-payne-death-what-know-rcna176556

---