‘Basuco’ is now considered the cheapest drug in the world, at 30 cents a hit. It’s made from the residue leftover from cocaine production, mixed with brick dust, volcanic ash, sulphuric acid, kerosene and sometimes ground-up human bones.

The high is all-consuming and shockingly addictive, and an epidemic of basuco dependency is tearing through poor communities all across South America.

For the cartels, often the cheapest and deadliest drugs are the most profitable. In this episode, we meet the shadowy figures behind this epidemic and visit the neighbourhoods it has destroyed in its wake.

High Society

The War on Drugs has been won. By drugs. They’re everywhere.

Many of them are new, and they’re all more potent.

Society is altering chemicals, and chemicals are altering society back, creating new drug scenes - some funny, some bizarre, some terrifying.

Drugs on TV usually mean criminals getting busted or addicts in recovery. But this series is about the cultures and people that have grown around the substances.

High Society will show you how drugs are shaping our world.

Watch more from this series:

Pissing Blood: The Ketamine Time Bomb
   • Pissing Blood: The Ketamine Time Bomb...  

Is Scotland the New Cocaine Capital?
   • Is Scotland the New Cocaine Capital? ...  

The Pink “Cocaine” Wave
   • The Pink “Cocaine” Wave | High Society  

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