One of the ladies on another board I frequent was a bit peeved because they had moved the formula from the shelves in her local store, to behind the Customer Service Desk due to losing thousands in a couple of nights from shoplifting. What came up in the discussion is that the shoplifters use the formula to cut cocaine for crack. How accurate is that?
If it was a desperate mommy who had to feed her kid I could understand her shoplifting, but how sad if it is to make drugs. Apparently the store left out the ready to feed and liquid formulas.
At one time there were stories in the media about people stealing baby formula and smuggling it to Iraq (this is before they “retuned” the sanctions to allow foodstuffs). I’ve heard accounts of people buying/stealing large quantities of headache powders to cut coke with, but not using baby formula for this purpose.
I don’t know if it is used to cut coke, but I do know that where I used to live (Troy, NY) almost all the stores that carried it kept it locked up, and you had to have the cashier unlock the case and get it for you. I fated a girl who worked at a drugstore once, and she told me that what her boss told her was because that baby formula used to be one of the highest stolen items in that area. Again, I’m just going on heresay here, but iy still doesn’t answer whether it was stolen because a poverty striken mother wants her baby to be healthy, or if it was for something for nefarious.
(Hey, that may well be the first time I’ve ever actually used the word nefarious.)
I can see it being used to cut powdered coke, but I don’t see how baby formula would be involved in making crack. Maybe the people on this other board just don’t know the difference between cocaine and crack.
The reason it is stolen is because its expensive, easy to carrry, and easy to sell. I work in the suburbs and heroin addicts will steal it and sell it to the less-than-honest convenience stores nearer downtown for a nice profit. I don’t have kids but I believe that a can of Emfamil will sell for @$15, but a heroin addict can get @$10 per can downtown.
Every time I arrest someone for shoplifting baby formula I can bet that person is an addict. As far as cutting cocaine with it, yes, its done. However, there are any number of substances that can be cut into cocaine that are less expensive.
I doubt it. Assuming you mean powder coke (since crack is not a white powder), it seems as though there are easier things to cut it with. Keep in mind that baby formula’s tremendously expensive - at least compared to how big a can is. If you’re in dire need, one of the easiest ways to “save money” would be to steal your baby’s formula.
Powdered baby formula is probably used to cut heroin and cocaine. Quinine is (or was) usually used to cut heroin and milk sugar to cut cocaine. Basically, any powdery non-toxic substance that will readily dissolve in the body (especially in the bloodstream and lungs) is good.
The fact that the shoplifting of the stuff is becoming more common is a sign that drug dealing and usage might be on the rise in that area. Drugs are cut and re-cut at each level of sale. Even the end-user may re-cut his stash. At least, that’s the way it used to be back in the 50’s and 60’s which is where my knowledge of the drug trade originated. However, if cutting agents are still such a target on the street level, then the business hasn’t changed much.
This sounds like a mix-up of several stories. Cocaine is often cut with Mannitol, a baby laxative. The only reference I’ve heard to baby formula re cocaine is using the containers for smuggling.
What I don’t understand is why the shoplifters take the big bulky cans of powdered formula as opposed to the smaller, easier to hide, ready to feed or concentrate. And how on earth do you shoplift a can of formula? It’s not like it’s something you can hide under a jacket!
Sadly, stealing baby formula is not a new problem. When I was working at a supermarket some 20 years ago, it was a problem then, and in a “lily-white” suburb, no less. The stuff is plain and simple very expensive. And very needed.
For someone skilled in shoplifting, it’s no problem to get the stuff out of the store. IIRC, at that time, the formula cans were close enough in size to some other product - vaguely recall it was powdered lemonade that they could wrap the lemonade label onto the formula can and be able to “buy” it for less if they didn’t want to outright steal it.
When I worked at security for large dept store and grocery store, two items caught us off guard when we tallied the theft rates (well, inventory shortages):
Baby formula
Tampons and Pads
The tampons and pads were usually stolen from the boxes, with the boxes ripped open/left behind.
Someone might be guessing that crack heads are out there buying coke and/or crack with baby formula powder used to stretch it. A number of drugs are ‘stretched’ like this…sort of like oregeno in the marijuana.