Monstrous substance: 'Tuci', pharmacopolitical assemblages and spectral materialities.
Mauricio Sepúlveda Galeas, Ernesto Escobar, Sebastían Ubiergo Scheel, Camilo Obregón Fernández
The International journal on drug policy November 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104942 via PubMed
Summary
Tuci (or 'pink cocaine') is not a counterfeit of 2C-B nor defined by ketamine, as common institutional and media claims assert. Drawing on Foucauldian poststructuralism, neomaterialisms, and decolonial studies, the authors argue that Tuci is a monstrous substance: it has no original or stable composition but is produced through material and discursive assemblages. It acts on and produces the body as an effect of these assemblages, defined by its affective operativity, contextual modulation, and performative adoption in liminal youth niches. The article calls for an epistemological shift toward a drug politics that recognizes mutability, relationality, and the power of the unclassifiable.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Decoloniality Monstrous substance Tuci Tusi |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key finding | Tuci is not a counterfeit of 2C-B nor defined by ketamine, but a monstrous substance produced through material and discursive assemblages, demanding an epistemological shift in drug politics. |
Abstract
This article critically examines the 'Tuci' (or "pink cocaine") phenomenon as an epistemic, cultural, and pharmacopolitical object, proposing its conceptualization as a monstrous substance. Two common assumptions in institutional and media discourses are problematized: that 'Tuci' is a counterfeit of 2C-B and that its identity is defined by the presence of ketamine. Using an approach that articulates Foucauldian poststructuralism, neomaterialisms, and decolonial studies, the authors dismantle these premises and propose a dense performative, speculative, and ontopolitical reading of the phenomenon. The article proposes a reading that describes how 'Tuci' not only acts on the body, but also produces it as an effect of material and discursive assemblages. It shows how this substance does not refer to an original nor can it be fixed in a stable composition, but is defined by its affective operativity, its contextual modulation and its performative adoption in liminal youth niches. Through two key concepts, monstrosity and decolonial critique, the essay proposes new grammar for understanding what 'Tuci' is and does. It concludes that this substance demands an epistemological shift towards a politics of drugs that recognises the mutability, relationality and power of the unclassifiable.