Drug made of car exhaust filters alarms Congo's capital

Earlier articles say that the pills are diazepam. Which would cause a lot of the described effects itself.<p>Perhaps the people stealing material from catalytic converters want a scapegoat? The brown powder could be whatever.<p>(Specifically, the video at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;africa&#x2F;car-exhaust-drug-craze-alarms-congos-capital-2021-09-27&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;africa&#x2F;car-exhaust-drug-craze-...</a> mentions it)

Can I show you how to read the news? It goes like this...<p>- A drug from a car part??? What&#x27;s in a catalytic converter?<p>- Google says: platinum (Pt), along with palladium (Pd), and rhodium (Rh). All three of these platinum group metals, or PGMs<p>- Is there a site that talks about every drug known? Yes, erowid.org<p>- Google: site:erowid.org platinum | palladium | rhodium<p>- Relevant Hit: &quot;Palladium&#x2F;Platinum Catalyst Preparation FAQ&quot;<p><pre><code> https:&#x2F;&#x2F;erowid.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;rhodium&#x2F;chemistry&#x2F;pd-catalyst.faq.html </code></pre> Which leads to...<p>Da da da ta da!<p>- Rhodium Archive Snapshot from August, 2004. Last Updated Mar 31, 2009<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;erowid.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;rhodium&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;erowid.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;rhodium&#x2F;</a><p>2004 folks, 2004. Now, you can read all about what is in these drug cocktails and how recreational and professional drug designers ply their trade.<p>That&#x27;s how you read the news. You don&#x27;t need to post wondering &quot;what could be going on???&quot; The author of the article didn&#x27;t bother to include &quot;there are indications that the active ingredient could be an element in the platinum group metals, maybe rhodium. The are signs of illicite designer drug research around these metals going back as far as 2004.&quot; But, it doesn&#x27;t mean we need to wander around in the headspace of a casual current event type of world news piece. Just go get the answer and in so doing you get perspective on the designer drug industry and how this particular cocktail came about.

&gt; A colonel of the National Police who prefers to remain anonymous points to an initial chemical analysis from a laboratory in Kinshasa. It has found that bombé includes a mixture of different substances like tramadol, dolarene, nitrile, ampicillin and, in some cases, traces of heroin.<p>So do we know that the elements from the car exhaust filter are.. the active ingredients? Or just there for a certain je ne sais quoi?

I wonder if the processing steps are this...:<p>* Steal car &#x27;exhaust filter&#x27; (catalytic converter)<p>* Grind it up.<p>* dissolve platinum out of filter.<p>* sell platinum for $$$<p>* Use $$$ to buy heroin and various other narcotics.<p>* Mix in some soot and ash.<p>* Sell it to drugies, telling them they can have a discount on the next batch if they bring in more &#x27;exhaust filters&#x27; to make it from.

These poor folks are snorting and smoking used industrial chemicals which should be in a landfill. And why? To cheaply forget and escape their squalid conditions.

For some reason the title made me think of &quot;Jenkem&quot;.

People ingest all kinds of things. Back in the 90s GHB was huge in my home town, and when the inflow dried up, people started drinking floor cleaner since the liver converted some kind of common ingredient in it to GHB.<p>Floor cleaning fluid for large buildings are denatured to this day, at least in sweden. People at work always complain about the smell. It has a very nice vomity tang to it.

So, somehow, car exhaust filters contain tramadol. Yes, sounds just right.

Sorry for the off-topic question, but how can that consent dialog possibly be compliant? The only options are to either accept all forms of unspecified tracking, or to pay for a subscription. It seems like exactly the kind of forced consent that GDPR is supposed to forbid.<p>I&#x27;ve seen the same thing with other German newspapers, but nowhere else. Have they been granted some kind of a special exemption in the German data privacy laws, or are they just gambling on selective enforcement?

Seems odd this was flagged

So they don&#x27;t even know what it <i>is</i> yet, but they&#x27;re sure it causes cancer long term.<p>Is it just me or is the appeal here: &quot;Look! Poor people are having unapproved fun! Shame and Horror!&quot; and assurances that they will suffer for it.<p>Wheras we have publications like this to protect us from going so dangerously astray.