If you've seen "pink cocaine" or "tusi" floating around your group chats or on social media lately, you're not imagining things, it's genuinely everywhere right now. But here's the part almost nobody mentions: it's not cocaine, and there's no consistent recipe. Every baggie is a different gamble.
So What Is It?
Pink cocaine started in Colombia's club scene years ago as a way to market the psychedelic 2C-B, dyed pink for branding. These days, genuine 2C-B is rare. An analysis of 68 samples submitted to a major U.S. drug-checking program found that 94% contained ketamine and 81% contained MDMA.
A 2025 Miami-Dade medical examiner case series looked at 14 pink powders connected to 8 overdose deaths. Ketamine turned up in every single sample. Most also had MDMA, and several contained additional substances, other stimulants, an opioid, and a benzodiazepine, layered in on top. None of the 14 samples contained any 2C-B at all.
The Real Danger Is the Mismatch
Here's why this matters more than "just another cut drug" story: people are often expecting one kind of high and getting a completely different one. If you think you're getting a stimulant-forward psychedelic and you actually get a ketamine-heavy dissociative, that mismatch alone is a risk; confusion, impaired coordination, and bad decision-making in an environment where you need your wits about you.
And it can get more serious than that. The DEA's own tracking notes that lab tests on seized pink powders have turned up methamphetamine, fentanyl, benzodiazepines, and xylazine in addition to the usual ketamine/MDMA base. Stack an opioid or a benzo into a mix you thought was just "party drugs," and you've got a real overdose or over-sedation risk that a single fentanyl strip alone won't fully catch, since it's not one drug, it's a cocktail.
Why One Test Isn't Enough Here
This is exactly the situation a single-substance test strip wasn't built for. Tusi is, by definition, a mix. This means the smart move is testing for the range of substances that actually show up in it, not just checking for one thing and calling it safe.
Your Next Steps
1. Don't assume "pink cocaine" means cocaine, or that it's a fixed formula. Treat every batch as an unknown mixture until you've actually tested it.
2. Use a variety of identification tests like the Ketamine Test Kit, Benzo Test Kit, Xylazine Test Kit to check for the range of substances commonly found in tusi (ketamine, benzodiazepines, and others) rather than relying on a single-substance test. The Multi-Party Test Kit can also tell you what the base drug is.
3. Pair it with the Fentanyl Testing Kit, since opioids have shown up in real seized samples, and always have naloxone and a sober friend nearby regardless of what your test shows.
Know what's actually in the bag before it's in you.
Sources
1. “Tusi (2C-B / ‘Pink Cocaine’): What It Actually Contains, and Why That Matters.” International Society of Substance Use Professionals, 2026. https://www.issup.net/node/69983
2. “Tusi but not 2C: A Miami-Dade medical examiner case series highlighting the variable drug composition in colored powder paraphernalia”, 2025. J Forensic Sci. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.70012.
3. “An Update on the Epidemiology of Tusi.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2025 (as cited in Current Addiction Reports). https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40429-025-00706-y.pdf
4. “Pink cocaine is spreading in U.S. — and users don’t know what’s in it.” Axios, January 2026. https://www.axios.com/2026/01/10/pink-cocaine-us-drugs-ketamine-fentanyl
5. “Tusi (‘Pink Cocaine’): What it Is, Why it’s Spreading, and How to Respond” (citing DEA seizure and lab data). Holon Health. https://www.holonhealth.com/what-is-tusi-pink-cocaine/