Levamisole has been found in both powder and crack cocaine in the Los Angeles area.

16:15 Levamisole has been found in both powder and crack cocaine in the Los Angeles area. 0 Comments

Potential cocaine users are being warned of unexpected side effects because of a cutting agent that's being used in the illegal drug.

Steuben County Sheriff Joel Ordway advised in a news release that a Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology indicates that patients have been visiting emergency rooms complaining of purple blotches on their ears and other areas after using cocaine.

Doctors described, in a June 7 paper, four cases at the University of Rochester Medical School of patients suffering a similar reaction to the veterinary medication levamisole, which is a livestock de-worming drug.

Levamisole is becoming a common cut for cocaine to increase the product, according to Ordway's statement, and dealers find that it is similar to cocaine because it also increases the level of dopamine to the brain.

Dr. Noah Craft, one of the study's authors, said the patients' blotches turn from pink to purple and, once the skin has died, to black, according to Ordway's statement.

Usually these marks are on ears, mouth and cheeks.

In some cases, patients also develop a potentially fatal condition affecting their bone marrow and leaving them vulnerable to infection, according to the statement.

Levamisole has been found in both powder and crack cocaine in the Los Angeles area.

"With over 75 percent of our cocaine coming from the Rochester area, users should be concerned by the four recent cases reported in Rochester," Ordway said in the statement. "Better yet, stop using cocaine."