Media outlets around the world have reported that former One Direction star Liam Payne consumed “pink cocaine” before he fell to his death at a Buenos Aires hotel on October 15. But how can investigators tell — and what is pink cocaine, anyway? Here’s what you need to know about the substance.

It’s important to note that so far, reports that Payne took pink cocaine are based on anonymous sources. Argentine prosecutors haven’t announced any conclusions beyond last week’s preliminary autopsy, so this claim isn’t official yet. The full results for toxicology tests typically take around two weeks, according to University of Buenos Aires toxicology professor Carlos Damin.

Despite its name, pink cocaine is not chemically related to cocaine. It’s also known as tusi or tusibi, because it is often confused with the hallucinogenic drug 2C-B — but it’s not related to that, either. Pink cocaine is actually a cocktail of drugs, the precise ingredients of which vary from dealer to dealer. It’s often expensive and associated with higher socioeconomic classes.

“They call it pink cocaine because people sniff it,” Damin said. Real 2C-B is a “cousin of amphetamines and MDMA,” he added.

In Argentina, it usually contains MDMA (also known as ecstasy or molly) or........

© Buenos Aires Herald