'I tried to buy pink cocaine linked to Liam Payne's death – and the results surprised me'

My attempt at buying “the ultimate party drug” was unsuccessful, but it did leave me wondering what might have been.

‘Pink cocaine’ is making its way towards the UK. The illicit ‘designer drug’ has been hugely popular in South America for several years, distinctive for its luminously pink-powder form. Not to be confused with regular cocaine, the ‘pink’ version is a cocktail of narcotics comprising substances like MDMA, ketamine and the psychedelic hallucinogen 2-CB.

Its “ultimate party drug” moniker has been the driving force behind its surge in popularity, while seedy marketers have been pushing it as “the sex drug” for its supposed performance-enhancing values when the users are between the sheets.

The concoction received global attention earlier this week, when a preliminary autopsy on former One Direction singer Liam Payne revealed the star had traces of ‘pink cocaine’ in his system when he tragically died.

The Daily Star was recently told by an expert the drug has been sighted in Ibiza, a party hotspot for Brits. According to author and drug cartel specialist Dr. Robert Bunker, there are “reports it's starting to show up in some areas of the UK for the party scene so it's already spread well beyond Ibiza”.

With this in mind, we at the Daily Star thought we’d have a go at seeing how easy it was for the average Brit to have a crack at buying it, of course without actually physically receiving the drug itself. In an experiment on Wednesday night, I mined several contacts, but ultimately came up short on the ‘pink cocaine’ front.

First of all, I needed to work out how to get in touch with drug dealers – the only chemical substances I do are over-the-counter ones after a night of too much beer. As luck would have it, however, I’d been invited to a gig in my hometown of Norwich that very evening.

I knew this would be my chance, and after some shambling small talk, I’d managed to rustle up four numbers of people I’d been told were in the drug-shifting business.

I immediately texted three of the numbers, withholding the phrase “pink cocaine” from my first message in order not to alert suspicion. The first of them wasn’t interested in my requests, but I thought I might be onto something with the second.

Despite not having pink cocaine and instead offering me “premium C” at “80 each”, this drug dealer offered an amenable tone and seemed genuinely keen to assist in my mission. “Guessing it's hard to get,” he wrote. “I’ll ask around, if anything pops up will let u know.”

I thought I’d change tack on the third one, and abbreviated it to “PC” instead. Unfortunately this still didn’t dredge up any hard results and my Wednesday night remained pink-cocaine-less.

The fourth number I’d acquired was one I’d been told to ring, rather than message. “Wonderfully old school,” said a pal as they typed the contact into my phone. I dialled the number and held my breath.

“Who’s this?” was the irritated first response I got after they answered – I missed the warm fuzziness of drug dealer No. 2. “Hi, I got your number from *****,” I said. “Bit of a long shot, but do you have any pink cocaine?”

“What the f**k is pink cocaine,” came the reply. “I’ve got regular.” Interestingly, I told him, I wasn’t in the market, but a lot of people can get the two things confused.

“F**k off, this is a wind up isn’t it,” the drug dealer said before hanging up.

So there you go – limited results, and the majority of dealers I heard from didn’t sound like they knew what it was. And I was probably blocked by the last bloke.

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