Heroin Cut with Morphine?: An Ethnographic-Forensic Chemistry Case Study

Abstract

This article uses a novel combination of ethnographic fieldwork and forensic chemical analysis to examine a single case study in order to illuminate the issue of adulterating illegal drugs with particular attention directed to the public health implications of these practices. Our analysis of an unknown powder acquired on the streets of New York City produced information that may be useful to health care practitioners and policy makers and demonstrates how the ethnographer's presence in the real world environment within which drug distribution and consumption takes place can be combined with rigorous verification in the laboratory. Our results indicate that the unknown powder, termed "morphine" on the street was, in fact, procaine hydrochloride at a purity greater than 99%. We conclude that the understudied problem of drug "cutting" contributes to morbidity and mortality among drug users in ways that are poorly understood and that continuous interdisciplinary monitoring of the content of illegal drugs in local settings is urgently needed.

• Adulterants
• Heroin
• Ethnography
• Forensic Chemistry