Monstrous substance: 'Tuci', pharmacopolitical assemblages and spectral materialities.
The International journal on drug policy November 1, 2025 Mauricio Sepúlveda Galeas, Ernesto Escobar, Sebastían Ubiergo Scheel et al. 3 citations
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.