Coke Bucks

Look closely. Is that a little white on the green in your wallet?

A recently released study found that 90 percent of bank notes in the U.S. had traces of cocaine on them. The study look at bills from 17 U.S. cities, and found the coke rates to be highest in big cities such as Detroit, Boston, and, you guessed it, Baltimore.

This has absolutely no greater meaning, but I just found it interesting. Are that many people really into coke?

The Associated Press story on the study, led by Yuegang Zuo, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, is amusing on several fronts, but I particularly enjoyed this quote from Claudia Dickens, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, about the condition of the currency when it's first printed.

"When it leaves here, it does not have any cocaine in it."

That's a relief.

Researchers examined 234 bills, ranging from singles to C-notes. Americans seem to have a taste for coke exceeding that of folks from other countries. Of the 27 bills analyzed from Canada, 85 percent had traces of cocaine. Eight of the 10 bank notes from Brazil were contaminated. Only a few of the 16 bills from Japan had the substance, and a little more than 20 of the 112 bank notes from China had bits of cocaine.

Photo: We now know why that bill is smiling. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images News)