Everything you need to know about Tuci- the party drug people are calling ‘pink cocaine’

‘It could literally be anything’


Party drugs fall in and out of favour all the time. Branded as a combination of LSD and MDMA, 2C-B hit the scene not that long ago. Confusingly, Tuci- or Tucibi- has nothing to do with 2C-B, or Stanley Tucci for that matter.

Tuci is massive in South America and is now creeping onto the scene in the USA and Europe. Here’s every thing you need to know about the latest party drug.

What exactly is Tuci?

Tuci is basically a cocktail of other drugs and its contents could vary massively depending on where you get it from.

Although it’s been branded by some as “pink cocaine”, it contains none of the famous white powder. To take Tuci, however, you’d snort it in bumps or lines as you would coke.

VICE took a documentary crew to Medellin, Colombia, the birthplace of Tuci, to see just how exactly it’s made.

Via the VICE doc that you can watch here

The documentary makers went to a cook house where they were told combinations of ketamine, MDMA, LSD and methamphetamines could be mixed with pink food colouring to produce Tuci.

The people cooking up the Tuci said that sometimes they mix it with fentanyl, a potentially deadly, synthetic cousin of heroin. Long story short, there could be any combination of chemicals in the Tuci you see in the UK or abroad.

Why is it pink?

The VICE team interviewed the creator of Tuci, who’s wanted by the authorities and reportedly earns $20m dollars a year. She admitted that the choice of colour was a marketing ploy. “The pink colour seems harmless. That is what attracts people to it,” she said.

However, the so-called Queen of Tuci doesn’t sample any of the product herself. “We know the harm it does to the central nervous system. What we manage to do here is to get people hooked and keep them there to become potential clients. We don’t care about what happens to their family or house. We simply sell and they consume.”

So, how do you feel when you’re on Tuci?

After essentially being held at gunpoint and told to sample some Tuci, the VICE presenter gave in and took a bump of the drug. He described the effects of Tuci as “trippy, euphoric and dissociative”. 

As Tuci differs from batch to batch, it’s likely you’ll experience different feelings depending on the bag.

Be careful as ‘it could literally be anything’

Obviously the main risk is that you don’t really know what you’re taking.

Pill Report provide information about drugs on Instagram. In one post they said: “The shit your dealer’s selling as Tuci is probably a plain old mix of ketamine and MDMA, with none of that elusive 2C-B.

“It’s a bit of a lucky dip too, as lab test sfrequently find caffeine 3-MMC and other synthetics.

“The amounts of each substance change wildly from batch to batch, so you’ll never get exactly the same high twice. It’s called ‘dealers’ leftovers’ in Holland as it’s literally the sweep of whatever’s in the bottom of the bag, then dyed pink to make it look pretty.

“Still want to experiment? We advise doing a small bump then waiting for the effect. After all, it could be literally anything. The last thing you need is to sketch out at a crowded after party.”

Information on how you can get your drugs tested can be found at The Loop’s website.  Other sites like Pill Report offer home-testing kits and information about drugs in circulation.

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