Nine of ten Canadian banknotes contain traces of cocaine

If only bills in Toronto and Sarnia were tested then the statement "nine out of 10 Canadian banknotes" has no validity unless the author's Canada only consists of one province.

The sample size was so small it is hardly an accurate portrayal of the state of our currency and can hardly be all of Canada if only 2 Ontario cities were used.

It's no wonder we're addicted to money.

As far as the tiltle of your piece goes, it is just a symptom of what journalism has become. The only basis in your article confirms that the study includes two cities in Ontario. Why not say so? A study that concludes something about two cities in one province can hardly be called conclusive as to the percentage of notes contaminated across the country. Do you get paid by the words you write? Don't you remember journalism school, if you even went there? Dp you actually realise that most people in Canada believe whatever is written in the internet? This according to a study conducted in Armstrong, Ont., population 350. Sheesh!

There is no such thing as journalistic integrity anymore. Most, if not ALL the "editorial" articles here on MSN and on Yahoo prove that conclusively.

It's all mis-direction and lack of research.

western civilization is not happy

From the original source, the journalist notes that an analysis of 27 Canadian banknotes is not enough to make sweeping generalizations about cocaine use in the country.

Cynics might suggest Flaherty's forecast differentials are the result of too much due diligence in "high finance", and maybe the Canadian Finance Minister should return to his "grass" roots

;)

Ok, so here's my question...how many bills does one tainted bill taint?

I would wager that most people keep their bills together, so if I have a bill with cocaine on it and I put it with all my other money, how many of those otherwise untainted bills become contaminated?

And for that matter, what about people who put their money in those self-check outs at the grocery store? If one tainted bill goes in, does every bill after that become tainted?

If this is the case than maybe it's like the sparkle test in school to show how germs spread. How many of the bills are actually tainted because someone used them to use coke and how many of the bills are tainted because they came in contact with a tainted bill?

Anyone can prove anything if they ask the right question to the right person. Studies like this shouldn't even be publicized. This study hardly proves anything aside from the fact that money is dirty, but anyone who has ever been to a strip club could tell you that!

Does this mean canadian currency is going to rise?

Well, according to the article the majority of amounts found were so small that it tends to render any big concerns ludicrous. The simple fact is that probably the majority of the bills themselves were contaminated by others. There are several ways that bills could contain trace amounts of Cocaine:

- use for snorting or as payment for drugs
- cross contamination in store cash registers, walletts, etc.
- cross contamination in banks when put through counting machines and bundled

The simple fact is that although the information may serve to indicate areas where there is Cocaine use it does not indicate that 85% of the people use or have any contact with Cocaine. The article is, as in many cases of so called news, misleading in what the title suggests. I often wonder whether the National Enqurier or Weekly World News secrestly owns many of the media outtlets today.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to make them out of paper?

they should have tested the notes for reefer, 100 percent would have come up green. :)
either way the bills should be worth more.

I guess this will give a whole new meaning to Money Laundering. Like how many Canadian bills does it take to be able to extract a kilogram. Or are we better to use American bills even with the stronger dollar??

That's what I'm talkin' about! Chop one up!

HYPE. Last week a science group released a paper on something stupid .Don`t remember what it was.Next day the stock market dropped over 360 points ..because of it .Maybee the sellers sniffed to much of contaminated paper money . Neverless . These kind of releases should not be allowed to circulate over the media .So the same now over the cocainlaced money bills .They did not tell us which is the most laced .It might be better for someone to get a high on these than wasting ther money on the streets. Just an Asperin per day should clear these writers mind instead of polluting the media with garbage .

Please, can we have a new study to let us know which denomination bills are prone to have the highest contamination of Cocaine (so as to avoid these bills). And put a contract out for tenders (ASAP) to clean up these dirty bills.
It would be in the best interest of the Canadian population to have this done.

OMG !! Its ALL my FAULT !!!! I accidentally spilt my Medicinal Cocaine on to a stack of 1000 $20 bills that I usually line my floor with :D

but honestly... I think its actually a good thing that we have so much Coke on our Bills... you can always count on COKE HEADS to keep the Economy up... and imagine the added value to our Dollar !!! YEAH !!!

>> Danny

Its not worth the cost of getting the bills cleaned... only to get them tainted again... unless you are willing to allot $100 M yearly just for the clean up.

The only solution is... gather up all who have issues with the bills.. and make them sniff it till they forget what they are all so pissed at :D

OMG!!! Your supposed to SNIFF it? Oppps!

It's because the bureaucracies are gobbling up the cash, dishing it out to CEO style bureaucrats. Youth are turning towards petty trafficking because there's so little legitimate employment. If you disagree, you're probably a pointless overpaid bureaucrat.