Coke found at NASA facility. Again.

Remember last year when someone dropped their baggie of blow in a space shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center? Happened again. From CNN:

"Law enforcement personnel field tested the substance, which indicated a positive test for cocaine," said Renee Juhans, an executive officer with (NASA's Inspector General's Office).
"The substance is now at an accredited crime lab for further testing," she said.
Juhans said that 4.2 grams of a white powdery substance was found in a NASA facility March 7. She could not confirm where, at the Kennedy Space Center, the drug was found.

"Powder at Kennedy Space Center tests positive for cocaine"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anonymous

Walowitz?
Felton / Moderator

“Well, I sure as hell am not going up there sober!”
therockmachine

With the shuttle fleet retiring soon, they need to test new ways to get high.
Wingo

Yeah, but was it *space* coke??
- DoctressJulia
  
  LOL!
Anonymous

Only users lose drugs :)
- emmdeeaych
  
  +1
rourin_bushi

If he’s one of the people about to get laid off anyway, he doesn’t have as much to lose. Hence, not trying as hard to hide the stuff while getting high at work.

Also, +1 @ therockmachine :D
- emmdeeaych
  
  Yeah, what would he/she have to lose, other than his/her unemployment insurance, COBRA coverage, and pension?
CastanhasDoPara

That’s a fairly significant amount of coke. Anywhere from $150 to a lot more depending on quality. And depending on the level of habit that could be a day to a a weeks worth of blow. Bet that this loser, er, I mean user, is kicking himself about now. What a dope.

And CC, that was brilliant.

Antinous… what the hell was that, I don’t even… Buzz Aldrin is a badass, for more than one reason. That guy totally got what he deserved.
JArmstrong

@Wingo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhTKuZ5S_oA

Thank you, sir.
Anonymous

Someone wanted to go back to the moon.
Anonymous

Those guys have to focus for such long periods of time. If they wanna do coke so be it. If anyone were allowed to do it they should be…
Cook!EMonstA

Are we sure it wasn’t plutonian nyborg..? (Man, that’s good Nyborg!)
ill lich

Sure, blasting off into outer space in a rocket would be cool, but can you imagine doing on coke? F$%K YEAH!
Lobster

Dammit! They told me they’d switched to Pepsi!
Anonymous

Charlie Sheen is an astronaut?
Ubernostrom

How else do you expect them to stare at computer monitors for days on end.
Cowboyshoe

I’ll admit my first reaction wasn’t “What idiot at NASA is doing coke?” but rather, “What idiot at NASA loses 4.5 grams of coke?”
nate_freewheel

“The substance is now at an accredited crime lab for further testing,”

“testing,” eh?
- delt664
  
  @ Nate –
  
  I once did some computer work / installs for a state’s forensics division. At one particularly hicksville location, a 50-ish lab tech was droning on and on about how evil marijuana is and how everyone who smokes it should go to jail for life.
  
  Amused, I pointed out that his job responsibilities included burning pot, and he didn’t seem to leave the room when he was doing his copious amounts of “testing”. After several minutes he realized I was implying that he was smoking pot on the job, and he got pretty pissed. He only calmed down after I brought him some cheeseburgers as a peace offering / subtle jab.
  
  /endramble
CC

‘Oh shi- I think I dropped my 6g wrap of coke in the hanger.’

‘Sir, on a routine inspection we found 5g of cocaine in the hanger.’

‘That’s terrible. I’ll drop this 4.2g of cocaine by the crime lab for testing.’

‘NASA just checked in 3g of cocaine for testing, sarge.’

‘What can you tell us about this 1.5g of cocaine, professor?’

‘After extensive testing, I found this 1g of cocaine to be reasonably pure but nothing links it to any perpetrator. I’ll supervise its destruction.’

‘We got to incinerate this 0.5g of cocaine, eh, Tony? What a waste. What a waste.’
- Anonymous
  
  +1 internets to you!
- DieFem
  
  Excellent!!!!!. :)
penguinchris

I don’t know why anyone should be surprised, I’m guessing stuff like this happens all the time elsewhere – it just isn’t newsworthy that someone lost their bag of coke at a random factory or warehouse or whatever.

Most of the people working at these NASA facilities are doing essentially manual labor kind of stuff. We’re not talking about NASA engineers and scientists (or astronauts) dropping their coke (not that I would be surprised if some of them did drugs), we’re talking about the people who spend most of their days probably carrying things from one side of the hangar to the other (or whatever).
Anonymous

maybe somebody wanted to make space-cakes?
Antinous / Moderator

Wonder if this will turn out to be related to the death of the pad worker who fell the other day?

Or this.
Anonymous

It must have been Charlie Sheen and a couple of hookers trying to sneak on the shuttle for some weightless sex. (That would be pretty damn “winning” in my book!)
JKG

Houston, we might have a problem!
Kieran O’Neill

So to go with sex in space, we now have drugs in space?

Heh – seems YTMND has already covered this…

Though I don’t think hallucinations are a particularly commonly reported effect of cocaine…
Mister44

Look for the guy in his underwear singing ‘Rocket Man’.
EH

Let’s hope “Dr.” Steven Hayne isn’t nearby.
Anonymous

Friday, Friday , Git ‘ in it on Friday , everybodys getting ready for the week end , which seat should I take ?
Anonymous

But it’s really “Moon Dust” i got from the last mission I swear
Mantissa128

I used to date a former speechwriter for the Prime Minister of Canada. She was also a drug runner for the Parliament. Weed and coke were the most popular items.

You honestly have no idea how many people use drugs, are driving on drugs, making policy decisions on drugs.

Look around you. This is the world, on drugs.
- Broggly
  
  That’s horrible. I know the free market doesn’t work that way, but I wish she had cut the fuckers off until they let us do drugs too.
hungryjoe

The astronauts have used the shuttle to smuggle blow into the country for years. Everyone knows this.
- Jean-Luc Turbo
  
  Laugh. Out. Loud (ins casez anyonez fergot wut LOL meanses)!
Cowicide

Well cocaine is what built the Dreamweaver software from Macromedia… oh wait, that was pretty damn buggy…

yikes…..
jeligula

Any other agency and they would have cleared everybody out and tested for anthrax. But since it was NASA, they automatically sent it to a drug lab. Nice.
Chong

Are they saying we should be shocked and appalled that people in this world do drugs, and some of them have jobs. Imagine it.

/I never could work out how you lose a baggy, particularly at work.
//Having said that I once managed to pull out a baggy full of weed along with some money from my pocket and nearly tried to buy food with it.
///Luckily I can quickly spot the difference between money and drugs and hastily shoved my hand back in my pocket
////Cool story, I know.
- Anonymous
  
  Snarkiness aside: using drugs at work is pretty widely recognized to be A Bad Thing, especially when you work for such a high-profile agency.
  - Jesse M.
    
    Snarkiness aside: using drugs at work is pretty widely recognized to be A Bad Thing, especially when you work for such a high-profile agency.
    
    Except cocaine isn’t all that different in its effects on the brain from prescription drugs which people use to enhance concentration and focus (ritalin or adderall, say), is it? They all inhibit dopamine reuptake in the synapses…is there any good reason other than tradition that some stimulants are considered useful and others dangerous? (obviously the street doses of many illegal stimulants are probably higher than would be best if your goal was just more focus as opposed to the euphoric effects, but I wonder if any of them would have significantly different effects from something like adderall at lower doses)
DaveP

nasa still brings the party, baby
cratermoon

Wonder if this will turn out to be related to the death of the pad worker who fell the other day? http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110314pad/
Laroquod

I am far less disturbed by the idea that some astronaut or NASA official is doing coke, than I am by the fact that some astronaut or NASA official can’t even secure his stash.