What is ‘pink cocaine'? Explaining the drug cocktail linked to Liam Payne's death

An initial toxicology report revealed that former One Direction singer Liam Payne had multiple drugs in his system, including “pink cocaine,” when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires.

Here’s what to know about the drug cocktail.

What is pink cocaine?

Pink cocaine is typically a powdery mix of ketamine and illegal substances such as methamphetamine, MDMA (also called molly or ecstasy), or opioids, according to WebMD. Researchers have also found new psychoactive substances, which are a new kind of synthetic drug, mixed in, the health-focused news outlet said. Pink cocaine can also include benzodiazepines, caffeine, hallucinogens, and the street drug bath salts.

Despite its name, the recreational drug may not contain cocaine at all and gets its color from food coloring. It is also referred to as tusi, tusibi, tuci, or tucibi.

How does pink cocaine affect someone?

It can be hard to determine how the drug cocktail may affect someone after ingesting it. WebMD said this is due to several factors: the types of drugs mixed in the pink cocaine; whether alcohol is involved; how much pink cocaine is taken; and how the body reacts to the drugs.

Pink cocaine also often includes both depressants and stimulants.

Potential side effects can vary but may include confusion, hallucination, strange thoughts, agitation, and feelings of sickness, according to WebMD. The National Capital Poison Center said physical and sexual assaults, as well as traumatic injuries, have occurred when people are impaired by the drug.

Shortly before Payne’s death, a hotel receptionist called 911 to report that a distressed guest who was intoxicated with alcohol and drugs was “breaking the whole room.” According to audio obtained from local media by Telemundo, the caller said that the guest was “in a room that has a balcony, and, well, we are a little afraid that he might do something life-threatening.”

Argentina’s emergency health service, Sistema de Atencion Medica de Emergencia, or SAME, confirmed to Telemundo that Payne fell from the balcony of his third-floor room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. Payne, 31, was found dead a few minutes after the 911 call, SAME director Alberto Crescenti told the Argentine TV station Todo Noticias TV.

An autopsy found that the singer had 25 injuries “compatible with those produced by a fall from height” and that his cause of death was “polytraumatism, internal and external hemorrhage,” according to the Argentina National Prosecutor’s Office.

Is pink cocaine dangerous?

Yes.

Because it is a street drug, “there’s no way to know exactly what’s in pink cocaine,” WebMD said, noting there’s concern that some batches may include fentanyl, the highly potent opioid responsible for many overdose deaths.

“The drug market now is more dangerous than I’ve ever seen it,” Bridget Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor for New York, told NBC News in August after pink cocaine — commonly used in the club and party scenes — was mentioned in a lawsuit against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Brennan warned that “you absolutely cannot trust that your dealer is selling you a product that you asked for.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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