How to find out whether a city has a drug problem: give it a urinalysis

Green Lantern · #1 06-24-2008, 09:20 AM

One big drug test for L.A.: sewage analysis

Experts are examining the outflow in several U.S. and European cities, and the data can be revealing.

Which city uses more cocaine: Los Angeles or London? Is heroin a big problem in San Diego? And has Ecstasy emerged in rural America?

Environmental scientists are beginning to use an unsavory new tool -- raw sewage -- to paint an accurate portrait of drug abuse in communities. Like one big, citywide urinalysis, tests at municipal sewage plants in many areas of the United States and Europe, including Los Angeles County, have detected illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.

Law enforcement officials have long sought a way to come up with reliable and verifiable calculations of narcotics use, to identify new trends and formulate policies. Surveys, the backbone of drug-use estimates, are only as reliable as the people who answer them. But sewage does not lie.

Since people excrete chemicals in urine and flush it down toilets, measuring raw sewage for street drugs can provide quick, fairly precise snapshots of drug use in communities, even on a particular day.

The results have been intriguing: Methamphetamine levels in sewage are much higher in Las Vegas than in Omaha and Oklahoma City, Okla. Los Angeles County has more cocaine in its sewage than several major European cities. And Londoners apparently are heavier users of heroin than people in cities in Italy and Switzerland.

"Every sample has one illicit drug or another, regardless of location," said Jennifer Field, an environmental chemist at Oregon State University who has tested sewage in many U.S. cities. "You may see differences from place to place, but there's always something."

The new practice of testing sewage has illuminated an environmental threat: Many urban waterways around the world are contaminated with low doses of cocaine and other illicit drugs from treated sewage.

So far, this "sewage forensics" or "sewage epidemiology" has not been widespread. Treatment plants do not regularly monitor sewage for street drugs. The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to add illicit drugs to the array of substances that could be monitored daily at treatment plants.

Unlike prescription drugs and personal care products, which are a hot topic in environmental contamination, illicit drugs have long been below the radar. MORE

Roogle · #2 06-24-2008, 09:29 AM

A waste of money to me. I would rather see the money go toward preventing drugs from getting on the street in the first place.

If they do detect cocaine use. What could they do to prevent it using that data?

__________________
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Pythoness · #3 06-24-2008, 10:47 AM

Many urban waterways around the world are contaminated with low doses of cocaine and other illicit drugs from treated sewage.

Remember that old 80's commercial, "drug use hurts everyone?"

I guess you hit a bullseye sometimes, even firing into the dark.

longnecker · #4 06-24-2008, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roogle

A waste of money to me. I would rather see the money go toward preventing drugs from getting on the street in the first place.

If they do detect cocaine use. What could they do to prevent it using that data?

That money would be better used for prevention.

Roogle · #5 06-24-2008, 01:26 PM

There is cocaine usage in Los Angeles? Someone was smoking pot in Jersey? Really?? GTF out of here! I wouldn't have known that if you didn't check the sewage.

motherof3 · #6 06-24-2008, 03:02 PM

Yeah I don't really see a point to keeping track of whose using what and where. But I do see a benefit if they can track how it's effecting fish and other wild life. Not to mention they stated that drinking water had yet to be tested. Hmmmm wonder why?? Too many chemical residuals that effect people that rely on it for drinking water??? We as a society need to take better care of our fresh water supplies IMO. If we run out of that or it becomes even more contaminated with drug residuals we could be in some serious trouble. On kind of the same vein, has anyone driven by Hoop's reservoir lately? I drove by there on 82 a few months ago and was stunned at how low the water level is. When I drove by the damn this last weekend it looks like they are doing work to the damn or around the dam itself. Does anyone know what they are doing?

How to find out whether a city has a drug problem: give it a urinalysis

Nature and Environment