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United Press International - NewsTrack - Most Spanish euros have cocaine traces by Shannon at 2:32 pm EST, Dec 29, 2006
MADRID, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- A study says 94 percent of all euro bank notes currently in Spain have traces of cocaine on them because of their use in drug trafficking. The BBC said Spain has one of the world's highest rates of cocaine use, and the report discovered that the contaminated bills, which dated no earlier than 2002, carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of the drug. While many of the bills likely got the cocaine residue from direct contact when they were rolled up and used to snort the drug, experts attached to the study said many others could have been contaminated via counting machines, the BBC said. The new cocaine study based in Spain, which has 475,000 regular cocaine users, comes after similar studies found similar conditions in nearby countries. In 2003, a survey found that euro bank notes in Germany showed similar traces of the narcotic. The BBC said that in 1999 experts in London found that 99 percent of all 5-pound notes had cocaine traces.
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RE: United Press International - NewsTrack - Most Spanish euros have cocaine traces
by flynn23 at 10:36 am EST, Dec 30, 2006

terratogen wrote:
MADRID, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- A study says 94 percent of all euro bank notes currently in Spain have traces of cocaine on them because of their use in drug trafficking.
The BBC said Spain has one of the world's highest rates of cocaine use, and the report discovered that the contaminated bills, which dated no earlier than 2002, carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of the drug.
While many of the bills likely got the cocaine residue from direct contact when they were rolled up and used to snort the drug, experts attached to the study said many others could have been contaminated via counting machines, the BBC said.
The new cocaine study based in Spain, which has 475,000 regular cocaine users, comes after similar studies found similar conditions in nearby countries.
In 2003, a survey found that euro bank notes in Germany showed similar traces of the narcotic.
The BBC said that in 1999 experts in London found that 99 percent of all 5-pound notes had cocaine traces.

I have a hard time believing this, especially vis a vis other substances that are also likely to be found on currency, like food, fabric, and feces. Besides, the physics of rolling up a note and snorting coke through it seems to indicate that it would have a very specific distribution pattern across the surface of the note. This sounds more like anti-drug propaganda.