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  • Basuco

    Medellín, Colombia

    A Colombian drug user exhales smoke while smoking basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user smokes basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – while lying on the ground in front of the metro station in downtown Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user carries out personal hygiene and washes his clothes on the street in downtown Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user, hiding from the rain, smokes basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • Colombian drug users smoke basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – while hanging out on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A teenage Colombian drug user sleeps under a pedestrian footbridge in downtown Medellín, Colombia.

  • A disabled Colombian drug user smokes basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user, intoxicated after smoking basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – sits on the ground on a street in downtown Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user smokes basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – while sitting in a makeshift room rented to drug addicts in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user, intoxicated after smoking basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – sits on the ground on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user dismantles discarded televisions to extract copper for recycling on a street near the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user cries in a makeshift room rented to drug addicts after being involved in a street fight in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user shows a large scar on her arm caused by a knife attack from her male partner in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • Colombian drug users pass between makeshift rooms rented to drug addicts in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user holds a homemade pipe loaded with basuco – an unrefined, dirty cocaine paste – on a street in the El Bronx neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia.

  • A Colombian drug user sleeps on the ground, lying next to his pants, in downtown Medellín, Colombia.

  • Copyright © 2025 Jan Sochor

Basuco The Drug Reality of El Bronx in Medellín

Medellín, Colombia

2017 – 2024

Basuco is a psychoactive drug. Sold as a white to yellowish paste-like powder, it is widely available in the ghettos and slums of major South American cities, especially in Andean countries where coca is grown and cocaine is produced or trafficked, including Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Produced through primitive methods, basuco is made by mixing unrefined coca paste – a crude intermediate created by coca growers in jungle “kitchens” – with cheap, readily available chemicals. This process dries the paste for smoking and increases the concentration of the active substance. Basuco is essentially an impure byproduct of cocaine production, containing toxic substances with varying chemical compositions and cocaine concentrations typically between 10 and 40%.

Basuco is smoked exclusively. Users inhale highly toxic smoke released by heating basuco – mixed with cigarette ash to help the greasy substance burn – in makeshift pipes made from plastic tubes, pens, aluminum foil, and found materials. The smoke is drawn in one or two powerful breaths. Sometimes, basuco is smoked rolled in tobacco cigarettes, which reportedly dulls its intensity and helps users control the effects. The psychoactive high, described as intense mental and physical pleasure similar to orgasmic sensations, occurs almost immediately but lasts only a few minutes. For long-term users, the high shortens to seconds and often includes dark hallucinations. Basuco is extremely addictive; its brief, intense euphoric effect sparks an uncontrollable urge to take another dose immediately. In Medellín’s El Bronx ghetto, most users endure trips lasting 24 to 48 hours. During these binges, they rarely eat or drink and do not sleep, continuously smoking pipe after pipe. In a frenzied state, they pace streets day and night, scavenging urban waste for cash to buy more doses and keep the trip going. These episodes typically end in exhaustion, trembling, and inability to get up from sidewalks or streets. Long-term basuco use carries serious health risks similar to cocaine, including heart attacks, strokes, liver and kidney failure, and permanent brain damage manifesting as irreversible cognitive decline and chronic psychosis.

Basuco is a drug of the poor. It is widespread in cocaine-producing countries due to its low price – about half a U.S. dollar per dose in Medellín. It is mainly used by homeless people, those who have fallen into poverty after job loss or family breakdown, sex workers, and individuals connected to criminal subcultures. Many users come from rural areas, migrating to cities but unable to handle urban socio-economic pressures. Recently, demobilized guerrilla and paramilitary members have also become part of the user base. Unlike snorting cocaine, smoking basuco disrupts daily life and makes holding a job nearly impossible. Many addicts end up in Medellín’s El Bronx, living by scavenging urban waste. They collect materials like copper wires, aluminum cans, and plastic, selling them to recycling centers in El Bronx for small coins, which they quickly exchange for more basuco. Intoxicated and emaciated, users move with jerky, convulsive motions or sit twisting and stretching their bodies, a state called in local slang estar gato (“being cat-like”). Estimating the number of basuco users is difficult since many live off the system – either homeless or in illegal shacks made of particleboard in El Bronx. Authorities estimate thousands in cities like Medellín and Bogotá, but street workers believe the true number is much higher, with tens of thousands nationwide.

Colombians consider basuco a “dirty” drug, unlike cocaine or marijuana, and it carries virtually no social acceptance. The stigma is tied to the extreme social decline it causes – users are often unwashed, smell strongly, and struggle to communicate due to the effects of long-term addiction. Despite this, some programs aim to help those trapped in basuco’s grip. In Medellín’s El Bronx, the local government runs a support center (Centro Día 2), where people can eat and sleep – if they are sober. Weekly, volunteer groups – mainly young people from middle-class, Christian backgrounds – walk through El Bronx offering food and aguapanela. Through faith and human contact, they try, usually in vain, to help users reconnect with society.

Although El Bronx may appear to be a chaotic epicenter of drug use, the reality is far more structured. The area – roughly a five-by-five block zone – is governed by a strict, informal order. Drug sales and distribution follow a rigid hierarchy, reinforced by unwritten rules that shape the rhythm of daily life. At each street corner stands a lookout, called campanero (“bell ringer”), often disguised as a vendor selling cigarettes or candy. These watchers monitor everyone moving through the area. If someone suspicious arrives – whether police or an outsider – the campanero signals the warning by whistling or shouting a well-known code word. Low-level drug trafficking (called microtráfico) is managed by networks of young men – always armed, wearing expensive sneakers, and ready to use violence. As informal enforcers, they ensure addicts don’t steal or disturb others. Anyone who breaks these unwritten rules risks brutal punishment – beatdowns for first offenses, and possible execution for repeat violations. The death of a homeless addict, already outside the system, rarely draws attention – from the public or the police. Above the dealers sits a council of older men – “those who decide” – led by the cabecilla del barrio (the neighborhood boss). They manage high-level decisions: what substances are sold, how profits are divided, and the overall governance of the zone. At the top of the chain are the drug cartels – such as La Oficina de Envigado and La Terraza – who manufacture and supply drugs, including cocaine and basuco, in bulk. Police play a mostly passive role. While unable to prevent end-user consumption, their efforts focus on containing basuco use within El Bronx. Even large-scale crackdowns – like one in 2018 – only bring temporary disruption. The cycle of addiction and violence continues, unbroken.

Photography & text by Jan Sochor

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