In San Jose last week, police made an arrest and booked a man suspected of running a drug manufacturing lab out of a Yum Yum Donuts on the 400 block of Blossom Hill Road.
Police obtained a warrant and raided the shop last month. At the scene, officers from several units collected illegal narcotics, narcotics manufacturing parts, large amounts of cash, an unregistered firearm and ammunition.
According to an SJPD press release, the drug obtained is called “Tusi,” “pink panther” and “pantera.” However, “tusi” is a street name for a drug that is often confused with 2CB, which is a psychedelic drug similar to MDMA that is often packaged in a pink powder. However, current testing of the street drug known as “tusi” shows that most often it is a mixture of opioids, cocaine, ketamine and sometimes MDMA or small amounts of 2CB.
This means that consumers of the drug are at risk of receiving a fatal dose of fentanyl when consuming “pink panther.” Because the drug often contains fentanyl, along with cannabis, cocaine and even caffeine, Narcan can stop fatality from overdose. The Santa Clara County Opioid Overdose Prevention Project offers training, information and narcan to individuals and institutions wanting to become active in overdose prevention.
In the photos released by police, among other items pictured that were seized at the drug lab/donut shop there is a packet labeled “strawberry powder.”
In response to many fads during the last ten years of snorting sugars, candies and powders, Dr. Richard Lebowitz, an associate professor at New York University’s Department of Otolaryngology, told Time magazine, “Snorting powder of any kind can lead to inflammation of the nasal lining, infection in the lungs and blockages of respiratory tracts and nasal airways. This occurs because powders are particle materials and can often have additional materials mixed in them that cause further deterioration.”
