For media inquiries, please contact us at ndews-cc@ufl.edu.
Recent media highlights
Ketamine: NDEWS Deputy Director Joseph Palamar Featured in CNN FlashDoc Short on Ketamine’s Science and Stigma
January 10, 2025: Special K: The Science & Stigma of Ketamine
NDEWS Deputy Director, Dr. Joseph Palamar, was featured in CNN’s exclusive documentary 'Special K: The Science & Stigma of Ketamine.' The documentary explores ketamine’s evolution from a battlefield anesthetic to a party drug, and now to a promising treatment for mental health disorders. Dr. Palamar provides expert insights into the risks and challenges of an unregulated ketamine landscape.

2024 Drug Trends: NDEWS Deputy Director Joseph Palamar featured in Salon
December 21, 2024: Psychedelics rejected, Captagon factories and "pink cocaine": The drugs that defined 2024 by Elizabeth Hlavinka
In Salon’s recap of 2024’s defining drug trends, Dr. Joseph Palamar, NDEWS Deputy Director, discusses the growing popularity of "pink cocaine," also known as “tuci.” This drug, a vibrant pink powder, is a mix of substances like MDMA, ketamine, and 2C-B but rarely contains actual cocaine. Its unpredictable composition makes it difficult to track and heightens the risk for people who use tuci. Dr. Palamar expressed concern over the potential for fentanyl contamination in tuci, which could turn the drug from a recreational novelty into a deadly threat. The spread of pink cocaine in Latin America, Europe, and the U.S. highlights the challenges of monitoring and mitigating risks associated with unregulated drug cocktails.

Tusi: NDEWS Deputy Director Joseph Palamar discusses NDEWS' web-monitoring efforts in reporting on pink cocaine via CBS News
November 25, 2024: "Pink cocaine" is the latest street drug. This team of researchers has been warning the public about it for a year by Tom Hanson, Laura Geller, Justin Sherman
NDEWS Co-Director Joseph Palamar, PhD, was recently interviewed by CBS News in a segment titled "Law enforcement raises warning over so-called pink cocaine." Palamar can be seen in the segment standing in front of a display of the NDEWS Web Monitoring Team's most recent report on pink cocaine, or tusi, as he explains how increased chatter on Reddit can be used to predict drug trends. NDEWS published its first alert on pink cocaine in February 2023.

Tusi: NDEWS Deputy Director Joseph Palamar interviewed by VoX
November 4, 2024: What in the world is pink cocaine? By Celia Ford
"The fact that it’s a pretty color draws a lot of people in,” Palamar said. Cases of pink cocaine being contaminated with fentanyl have yet to be reported in the US, but that hasn’t stopped Palamar from worrying about it. Over the past several years, potentially fatal doses of fentanyl have been found in samples of fake prescription pills, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Given its rising popularity, it’s reasonable to think that pink cocaine could be next. Palamar urges users to act with intention: Know what your drugs are made of, and dose with caution.

Tusi: NDEWS Director Linda Cottler and Deputy Director Joseph Palamar quoted in The New York Times
October 22, 2024: What is 'Pink Cocaine'? by Emily Schmall
The New York Times reported on tusi, also known as pink cocaine, highlighting the DEA's reports on increasing distribution of the polysubstance, which is often found to contain ketamine in addition to other substances. “Ketamine is going to dethrone Ecstasy very soon, and tusi is really going to bump it up,” NDEWS Deputy Director Dr. Joseph Palamar was quoted as saying in the article. NDEWS Director Dr. Linda Cottler told the New York Times that she considers pink cocaine among the most dangerous club drugs because dealers and users rarely know what is mixed into any given batch. Palamar also spoke about the potential dangers. “All you need is one drug dealer to mix fentanyl into their tusi batch,” he said. “They have the ability to poison a bunch of people.”

2025
- CNN FlashDocs: ‘Special K’: The Science & Stigma of Ketamine, CNN, January 10, 2025
2024
- Psychedelics rejected, Captagon factories and “pink cocaine”: The drugs that defined 2024, Salon, December 21, 2024
- “Pink cocaine” is the latest street drug. This team of researchers has been warning the public about it for a year, CBS News, November 25, 2024
- What in the world is pink cocaine?, Vox, November 4, 2024
- What Is Pink Cocaine? The New Designer Drug Linked to Liam Payne’s Death, Verywell Health, October 30, 2024
- ‘Pink cocaine’: What is it and how is it linked to Liam Payne and Sean (Diddy) Combs?, CBC News, October 23, 2024
- It’s hot pink and smells sweet but the party drug tusi can prove deadly, Washington Post, October 22, 2024
- ‘Pink cocaine,’ the designer drug tied to Liam Payne’s death, isn’t what it sounds like, Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2024
- What is the recreational drug ‘pink cocaine’?, Associated Press, October 22, 2024
- Magic Mushrooms, Teens, and Young Adults, Psychology Today, October 18, 2024
- Not So Pretty in Pink, Psychology Today October 5, 2024
- How Galaxy Gas Became the Defining High of the Brainrot, GQ October 1, 2024
- Drug overdose deaths seem to have suddenly dropped in the United States, but why?, Planet America (ABC Australia- News In-depth), September 27, 2024
2023
- Research Finds Major Increase in Seizures of Illegal Ketamine, Sparking Concerns About Risks of Use, NYU Langone Health, May 24, 2023
2022
- US: Monitoring community health through wastewater analysis: Gator WATCH™ partnership with the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, February 11, 2022
- UF HealthStreet provides nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, The Gainesville Sun, February 6, 2022
- Reducing opioid overdose deaths in Minnesota: Insights from one tribal nation, Seven Directions, May 24, 2022
- What is NDEWS?, America’s Rehab Campuses, September 30, 2022
- Introducing the National Drug Early Warning System, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, July, 2022
- Pills containing fentanyl are becoming increasingly common in drug trafficking, NPR, March 31, 2022
- Fentanyl’s lethal toll continues. Nearly 10 million pills were seized last year, NPR, March 31, 2022
- Growing number of pills containing fentanyl seized by law enforcement, NYU, March 31, 2022
- Law enforcement seizures of pills containing fentanyl increased dramatically between 2018-2021, National Institute on Drug Abuse, March 31, 2022
- Online forums like Reddit could work as drug use early warning system, Florida Atlantic University News Desk, January 26, 2022
- NDEWS Interviews Podcast, Apple Podcasts, July 21, 2021
- Drug seizures plummeted early in the COVID-19 pandemic, then climbed once lockdowns lifted, EurekAlert, March 2, 2021
- University of Florida named coordinating center for national drug abuse surveillance system, UF Health Newsroom, July 7, 2020
- National Drug Early Warning System 2018, Footprints to Recovery, 2018
- News from the Northeast Node, Clinical Trials Network Dissemination Library, June 9, 2016
- New System Will Monitor Emergence of Illicit Drugs, American Psychiatric Association, September 26, 2014
- NIDA Announces Development of New System to Monitor Drug Abuse Trends, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, July 30, 2014
- United States: NIH System to Monitor Emerging Drug Trends, UNODC Laboratory and Scientific Service Portals, July 2014
Last modified: 01/27/2024