Why Germany tracks so many notes

[emmem]

Well I heard it on the news today and wouter posted something about it in the German forum. It seems than 9 out of 10 notes in Germany contain a trace of Cocaine.

I can imagine that when entering a note they smell the note... and the cocaine. So they want to enter a next note. And before they know it, entering notes becomes an addiction.

[BossaNova]

is not only in Germany, I remember watching similar news in Portugal and London..

the problem is that the counting money machines in banks are full of cocaine, so they contaminate other notes.. but that doesn't mean that all the notes were used to comsume drugs..

bn

[BogPoet]

Once again I'll be the know-it-all...

This article is about US currency, but it still fits the bill:
http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp

[emmem]

Nice article. I knew that only a small part was used as a drug tool. But it's always nice to know some additional details like

The average person need not fear that the money in his wallet will inadvertently get him high, or that the act of paying for his burger and fries at McDonald's will cause him to fail a random drug test. Only those whose jobs call upon them to handle an extremely large number of bills every day need worry that enough cocaine is getting on their hands to be detectable.

I know some people who handle lot of cash so I'll send them an email to warn them.