Pink cocaine (known colloquially as “tusi”) has turned up in Canberra for the first time and it has raised alarm bells for the cocktail of other drugs that it contains.

Canberra’s free Health and Drug Checking Service, CanTEST, tested a sample of what was purchased as psychedelic drug 2C-B, but was found to be pink cocaine, containing the anaesthetic Ketamine, and stimulants MDMA and cocaine.

Pink cocaine originated in Latin America and has spread across Europe and more recently the United States. This is the first time it has been detected by CanTEST, according to Stephanie Stephens, Chief Operating Officer of Directions Health.

“Certainly, it’s the first time we’ve had the pink powder combination presented in the drug-checking service and we didn’t know more generally that it was circulating in Canberra,” Ms Stephens says. “It‘s concerning that it was mis-labelled, so it was sold as one thing but it contains a combination of other things.”

Ms Stephens says the “variabiiity” in pink cocaine’s content and purity poses a real risk.

“The sample we have at CanTEST contained different drugs to what it was sold as – stimulants, dissociates and empathogens, instead of a psychedelic,” she says.

“This is telling us to look out, we need to get our drugs checked, we don’t know what’s in them, it’s not reliable.

“What people might be purchasing as drugs could be a different class of drugs entirely. You don’t know what you’re getting or how strong it is without getting it tested.

“It’s also a matter of how people take it as well, to reduce the risk. We can have a conversation about the method of using it, the amount they’re using, how often they’re using it, what they’re mixing it with, how it might interact in their bodies.”

CanTEST pill testing is open every Thursday from 10am to 1pm and every Friday from 6pm to 9pm. Ground Floor, inside the City Community Health Centre, 1 Moore Street, Canberra City.