Last December Ira Glasser, Director of the
ACLU, placed an ad in the
New York Times warning Americans that "... there's a three out of four chance that the money you're carrying could be legally confiscated."
According to Glasser, up to 75% of American paper money is contaminated with cocaine and as such, could be confiscated by the feds because of its status as a "drug-related asset." To back up his claim, he cited studies published by Argonne National Laboratories, the FBI, and the Journal of Forensic Sciences which place the number between 70 and 100 percent of bills (most frequently $1 bills) contaminated with nose blow.
The amounts are small (six to 10 nanograms per bill) and the coke molecules are so embedded in the bill's fibers, that they can't rub off on your hands.
Where does all the nose candy come from? The FBI estimates that some bills get dusted with the stuff from being used as a make shift straw and the rest are dusted through ATM machines that carry large quantities of money.
Miami leads the nation in cocaine encrusted bills followed by Houston and Chicago.
Source: Slate.com; sciencenews.org