CTN-0130: Quantifying How Cocaine Users Respond to Fentanyl Contamination in Cocaine
Cecilia Nunez
Lead Investigator
University of Illinois at Chicago
cnunez29@uic.edu
The increased presence of fentanyl in cocaine has drastically increased cocaine-related overdoses, yet there is no research quantifying how cocaine users respond to fentanyl adulteration. In this online study, a modification of a behavioral economics measure, the Cocaine Purchase Task, will quantify for the first time how cocaine users respond to fentanyl contamination in cocaine. This study aims to 1) Determine how possible fentanyl adulteration affects cocaine demand, and 2) Determine which individual characteristics moderate the relationship between fentanyl adulteration and cocaine demand. Determining how possible fentanyl adulteration affects cocaine demand can help inform the development of effective harm reduction interventions for people who use cocaine to address the worsening crisis of opioid related deaths.
Primary Findings
This Amazon Mechanical Turk study included self-reported cocaine purchasers (N = 64), who completed self-report questionnaires (demographics, substance use history, depression/PTSD symptoms, fentanyl knowledge quiz), and the ACocPT. Results showed 1) greater probability of fentanyl adulteration (10%) lowered cocaine demand, but only for intensity; 2) no effect on other demand indices; 3) significantly more zero-responders with 10% probability of fentanyl adulteration than 0%; and 4) opioid co-use, depression, age, PTSD, fentanyl knowledge, and cocaine use severity did not moderate the relationship between fentanyl adulteration and intensity.
Overall, fentanyl adulteration reduced cocaine demand but only for volume preferred at minimal cost, not general motivational drive for use, illustrating the dangerous insensitivity to toxic contamination. The internal validity of the paradigm provides proof-of-concept for this approach to identify individuals at risk from fentanyl adulterated cocaine.
Primary outcomes article: Nunez C, et al. Probability of fentanyl adulteration in cocaine selectively decreases cocaine demand. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2026;34(2):207-215.
Related Resources
Node Involvement
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