85% of Dollars in US Cities Test Positive for Cocaine

The US money supply is literally soaked in cocaine, the Guardian reports.Tests performed by the American Chemical Society found that an average of 85% of paper money circulating in big US cities tests positive for traces of the drug. While cross-contamination between bills bundled together is a factor, it cannot explain the increasing abundance of the drug on dollar bills. Tests performed only two years ago found that 67% of bills tested positive for cocaine.

"It could be related to the economic downturn, with stressed people turning to cocaine," one of the researchers told the New York Daily News. Of US cities, Washington DC had the highest occurrence of cocaine residue, with 95% of its bills testing positive. The researchers note that $1 and $100 are rarely used for cocaine consumption—$5, $10, $20 and $50 bills are America’s preferred snorting tools.
(More cocaine stories.)