Then Again, They Also Could Have Just Asked Us . . .

According to detailed analysis of the Hudson River, residents in the Hudson River watershed consume more cocaine than anywhere else in the world:

Researchers for the Nuremberg’s Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research scoured the Hudson River for benzoylecgonine — a substance produced by the human body while processing cocaine — and found byproducts equivalent to a total of 16.4 tons of cocaine per year.

An estimated 3.4 million people ages 15 to 65 live in the Hudson’s watershed. Nearly three percent of Americans in this age group use cocaine at least once a year, according to the United Nations “World Drug Report.” That equates to about 95,000 people who are consuming the 16.4 tons of pure coke annually.

The researchers also discovered more pure coke in our river than anywhere else — including Washington’s Potomac River and San Francisco Bay.