Engineering News

I was just wondering earlier today why all money smells the same. I wonder if it constitutes any kind of health risk for the rest of us? One more reason my father's advice not to put money in your mouth was good to head.

Heed?

Another example of failed prohibition.

definitely heed, shot 6 hours on a short film today, on site, kinda fuzzy...

Drug prohibition, it doesn't seem to work anywhere, so let's keep doing it.

I've often wondered if I was a drug lord/corrupt official/police unionist would I be for or against banning (some) drugs.

I guess making tobacco and alcohol legal worked. No one is addicted to those.

Actually there is quite a story behind money,

The paper itself is quite a recipe., The color green because at the time it was the most stable color (fade resistance) at the time.....

and as far as putting that money in your mouth.......if you knew where that moneys been, being slightly laced with coke may be the least of your problems.

Ironically, because of its durability, hemp is one of the components of the paper in greenbacks.

So if my cash (if i actually had any ) has this small amount of cocaine on it, how much does it take for a drug sniffing dog to detect? Would it react to say a couple of hundred in my wallet? Then would i have to put up with a full search of my person because some idiot previously used my $ to use drugs?

That is a good question. Hell of a notion huh? I'm sure that most cops know about this, so if they really want to screw with you, they send in the dog. He sniffs your money, goes nut on it, then your day just gets a whole lot worse. I don't know if that has any merit or not. It is definately something to ponder. And that's why you never get beligerant to or disrespect a cop.

OK...so does this mean if I take a razor blade and dice up my bills into a fine powder and then snort it, I'll get a high?

But then that also raises the question of what do you snort cocaine-laced bills through? Simply using more bills seems like a violation of snorting etiquette, somehow.

Hi all,

It's not a surprise. Here in Spain few months ago a research institution prove a new technique able to detect drug residuals in the air. They did it in different Spanish sites and found residuals of cocaine, heroine, cannabis... practically everywhere.

Obviously, the concentrations aren't too high as to fear people to become addicts, but it seems a useful tool to follow the (bad) habits in different regions, quarters...

What a pity!!!

Its has been publish, that currency is a good tool for terrorist to spread biologicals.

A few years ago during the Anthrax scare, there was a concern that the Anthrax terrorists would use the paper money supply to spread the disease. I was involved in a project to build a machine which would use steam to sterilize the paper money as it was processed by the regional Federal Reserve banks. The machine utilized a pressure chamber and two open mesh teflon coated conveyor belt to transport the money though the sterilization chamber. As far as I know, the machine never reached commercialization. Only one prototype was built. The machine did work..it not only sterilized the money, it also cleaned the money. The drain from the machine had a filter in it that would quickly fill up with cocaine. The DEA was there to collect residue. The machine was built and tested at a Florida machine builder...I assumed the cocaine was a Florida problem...it now looks like a country wide problem.

The machine did work..it not only sterilized the money, it also cleaned the money. The drain from the machine had a filter in it that would quickly fill up with cocaine.

interesting, and where is this machine now? $$$$ you created a whole new industry.....and gave back the meaning to laundering money.......or you thought was cocaine.

the developer of the machine went bankrupt...I think the machine was sold as scrap metal...and you are right ...the money was nicely laundered...clean and crisp....and we KNOW FOR SURE that the residue in the filter was at least partially cocaine..and I am sure some percentage of other types of dirt, oil from fingers, who knows what else...

it would be interesting to take a swab of some of the bills before hand or even now to culture to see what develops

Sorry but I have to comment,

U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that more than 2 million Americans used cocaine in 2007..........The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, for its part, reported in the same year that 6 million Americans admit using cocaine annually

Does that mean that a lot of people are just pretending (to look cool perhaps)

Here is another article to help keep things in perspective.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/08/cocaine-all-over-your-dollar-b.html

It pays to always be cautious of broad sweeping statements when small sample statistical analysis is involved.

What really is the point of this? Apparently it costs money to get cocaine?

-And I get lots of calls from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime asking me how often I have sex with my wife.

Yeah, everybody I know calls the UN and tells them what their favorite drugs are, and how often they use them!

"Yeah, Ban Ki Moon called me."

"Wow!"

"Yeah, he wanted to know if I had any coke."

I knew it was a slow news week, really I knew it.

Here's a good primer on the "real" war on 'some' drugs.

http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html

Legalize it, tax it, spend the (cocaine contaminated) money on social programs to make people into healthier people. Making people into criminals doesn't encourage health it just boosts the prison industry which has no GNP, it's just a money hole to hell.