STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 22 (UPI) -- The Swedish agency that issues health warnings said it is not responsible for alerting the public about contaminated cocaine circulating in the country.
Spokesman Anders Persson of the National Institute of Public Health said the issue "is more a question of acute poisoning" and should be handled by the country's poison information center, the Swedish news agency TT reported.
Cocaine seized in Sweden last week was cut with a substance called tetramisole that is commonly used to treat worms in animals.
Bjorn Beerman, a professor at Sweden's Medical Products Agency, said the presence of tetramisole makes an already dangerous drug more hazardous.
He said the side effects are fatal for some 10 percent of affected users.
Three years ago the European Union warned Sweden that cocaine cut with tetramisole was being circulated in Europe where two people reported died from side effects.
In the United States, a public warning about the drug was issued in 2009.
Chairman Berne Stalenkrantz of the Swedish Drug Users Union said it is Swedish policy not to inform addicts about such dangers.
