Drugs on your money?

Sam Seneviratne

Abstract


It is already public knowledge that there are traces of cocaine on the majority of UK banknotes and US dollar bills [1]. This paper investigates how many notes and therefore how much currency a person would need to qualify for being in possession of 100 mg and 5 g of cocaine which, in usual circumstances, would be seen as a criminal offence [2]. On average, to accumulate 100 mg of cocaine on UK sterling £ 5 notes, a person would need £ 17,575. To accumulate the same amount of cocaine on US $ 1 bills the total came to $ 3,782. To accumulate 5 g worth on £ 5 notes a person would need £ 878,350 whilst for US $ 1 bills this came to $ 175,670. In usual circumstances, possession of cocaine in this quantity would result in a maximum sentence of 7 years and 6 months imprisonment [3].


Keywords


Health; Probability/Statistics; Cocaine

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References


Biello, D. (2016). Cocaine Contaminates Majority of U.S. Currency. [online] Scientific American. Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cocaine-contaminates-majority-of-american-currency/ [Accessed 04/03/2016].

London Criminal Solicitors (2016). Drug & Cocaine Possession Charges - Class A B Offence London. [online] Available at: http://londoncriminalsolicitors.co.uk/drug-crimes/possession-cocaine-drug/ [Accessed 24/03/2016].

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