Yesterday, Metro reported a new “phenomenon” in the world of cocaine: people using new fivers to snort their lines are apparently cutting the inside of their noses because the polymer coating makes the notes stiff enough to inflict actual physical damage. This phenomenon – which, by the sounds of it, is less a phenomenon and more one guy telling a journalist it happened to him once – is referred to as “getting Winstoned”, because Churchill’s face appears on the note.
So what are cocaine users to do? To find out, I asked the people I thought would know best: a currency expert, a pharmacologist, a headshop worker and a drug dealer.
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(We’re not advising anyone to use cocaine, because it’s illegal and bad for you. But if you’re going to do it anyway, you should know how to do it safely: use a clean, disposable item, like a straw; switch nostrils; cut the powder finely; and rinse your nose out at the end of the night.)
A CURRENCY EXPERT WHO DID NOT WANT TO BE NAMED AND HAVE HIS NAME TARNISHED IN THE CURRENCY EXPERT WORLD
VICE: Are all bank notes the same consistency?
Currency expert: Old French paper is probably the softest, so that might be something you would want to use because, for one, they won’t be as likely to cut your nose because the paper won’t sit taught – it’s too slight, like extra-thin greaseproof paper. Also, perhaps it would be less clumpy and less fibrous so the cocaine wouldn’t cling to the paper, rather it would slide up it like lubricated plastic. The French papers were quite large and they were a lot, lot longer than what we use now. The new fiver is very compact and small.
So you might be able to get a bigger surface area whilst also maintaining a tight cylinder?
Yeah, exactly. Russian notes are massive – almost ten inches long, but they also have a bit more weight to them. I don’t know… I don’t take drugs.
*Hangs up*
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HEADSHOP WORKER WHO ALSO ASKED TO BE ANONYMOUS
Which snorting devices are most popular in your shop?
Headshop worker: If you want a big hit, we have a double snorter. Also, a lipstick that has a hollow on the inside, a hoover – it’s not a functioning one unfortunately; it’s just a normal snuff tube, but for the lols it’s the shape of a hoover.
What is the benefit of using snuff tubes over a note?
Nose cutting – that can be an issue for people – and it’s cleaner: you won’t be spreading your lurgies and you won’t have to worry when you’re in Sainsbury’s, or whatever, about buying some milk and accidentally handing over a cokey note. They’re a bit more secure, too – like, you don’t have to worry about the roll unravelling out. If you like big lines we have some really heavy duty cast metal snuffers.
If you use a note, do you lose cocaine because it goes in between the folds of the note?
Well, I presume you would lose some of it, but I don’t really know the signs of it – I am more into hallucinogens myself.
Whereas your hoovers just hoover it all up.
Yeah, it always goes somewhere, if that makes sense.
FORMER DRUG DEALER WHO IS NOW A CITY BOY WHO LOVES COCAINE
In your experience, how do most people ingest cocaine?
Drug dealer/City boy: Through experience, I was quite impressed by the new five pound note. Less residue left on it, it’s a lot cleaner and you know you’re getting your full whack.
Because it’s quite a slippery surface?
You are spot on. With paper you can’t really see what’s been left on, and with your nice polymer note you are 100 percent – or as near to it as possible – apart from the little granules that get stuck up your nose.
Have you seen any enterprising ways of taking coke?
I have seen girls use the little end of a tampon – the bit that looks like a straw. Before it’s been used to insert the tampon into the vagina, obviously. One that is not quiet as creative, but just a bit grim, at a festival this man had a pretty hench nail for a guy – it was so long it had sort of mutated into a kind of scoop shape. He would use it to shovel coke into his nose. They weren’t the cleanest – they were pretty dutty nails – but, you know, in festival mode I wasn’t really that arsed, ’cause he was giving me some cocaine for free.
Had he grown the nail for the purpose of taking drugs?
I doubt it. I mean, that would have been impressive and I would have probably chatted to him for a bit longer. I’d ask him whether it’s better to have just one coke nail and nine short nails or to have two coke nails just in case one broke.
It seems like with taking coke it is just more of an aesthetic thing.
I mean, the note is just absolutely timeless – the shard of a tampon or a snuff pipe will just never look as cool. If you watch a Quentin Tarantino film you expect a big fat note.
Photo: Jake Lewis
A PHARMACOLOGY ACADEMIC AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Apparently the new fivers are cutting peoples noses when they snort cocaine.
UCL Academic: Did you know there are millions of bank notes that every year become too contaminated to use because people always use them to snort coke with? In the US, virtually all their dollars are contaminated, and they have to destroy millions every single year because they become unusable. When the police do raids on drug rings there may be thousands of pounds stashed in the place where they distribute drugs, which will become heavily contaminated and have to be destroyed. With plastic notes this isn’t as much of a problem because they are more slippery, so coke cannot cling to them.
Does the way you snort coke change how it affects you?
You don’t need an expert to tell you that if you snort cocaine, whatever means you use, it’s going to be effective.
Do you think cocaine users should be worried about getting winstoned?
If you snort cocaine you’re going to have a serious problem with damaging your nose permanently. Nevermind the cut, you have to be worried about destroying your septum like that Eastenders star.
Why does cocaine destroy your nose?
It’s because of vasoconstriction. This term refers to how coke constricts the blood vessels in your nose and depletes them so that your nose literally falls apart. In addition to the fact that it is actually centrally active, you can tell from the name that cocaine is actually a local anaesthetic. So aside from the high, the nature of the molecule is intensely numbing – so you wouldn’t be able to feel these small nose cuts anyway; there would be no physical sensation.
Would it be bad if cocaine got in the cut?
Definitely. First of all, they wouldn’t know if they had cut their nose because it would numb the cut, so they wouldn’t feel any pain. And if there is enough damage to your nose that you have a cut, when you sniff the cocaine it is conceivable that it could get into your blood supply much faster, which would have a much more dramatic effect and possibly a much more dangerous effect.
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