Study: Most Bills Have Cocaine on Them

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A study that tested paper money found that nearly 90 percent of currency had traces of cocaine on it in big metropolitan areas in both Canada and the United States, National Geographic reports .

The study conducted by the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth tested currency from 30 big cities in five countries -- the U.S., Brazil, Canada, China and Japan. Brazil came in a close third to the North American nations with contamination on 80 percent of paper money. On the other end of the spectrum, in China and Japan, cocaine was present on less than 20 percent of banknotes.

Researchers were surprised to find evidence that more Americans are using the illegal drug, said study leader Yuegang Zuo. In a similar study by the same team in 2007 , 67 percent of U.S. bills were found to be tainted with cocaine. The drug gets on paper money during drug transactions and when people roll bills to snort cocaine powder, Zuo said.

The new findings could "help raise public awareness about cocaine use and lead to greater emphasis on curbing its abuse," Zuo said in an email.

The U.S. is the world's biggest cocaine market with an estimated 6 million Americans use cocaine each year, consuming somewhere between 259-447 tons of it, according to the UN World Drug Report .

Baltimore, Boston, Detroit and Washington, D.C., were among the cities with highest concentration of cocaine-laced bills at nearly 95 percent.

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