Lethal coca-based "oxy" drug sweeps through Amazon region

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2005

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — A new drug far more powerful and deadly than crack cocaine is spreading rapidly through parts of the Brazilian Amazon near the border with Peru and Bolivia.

"Oxy", a coca paste-based drug mixed with kerosene and lime, has replaced in the past two years less potent coca-based drugs like crack and "mezcla", popular among young slum-dwellers in the Amazon state of Acre.

The drug is different from Oxycontin, the highly addictive prescription painkiller produced in the United States.

First noticed by social workers fighting the spread of AIDS, the Brazilian oxy is so lethal that at least 13 of 75 users examined in an investigation died not long after.

Named for the oxidation process involved in its production, the drug can be...