Journal article: Population drug use in Australia: A wastewater analysis

[phase_dancer]

Some readers may be interested in this topic. If this form of monitoring becomes widespread, it will definitely improve the accuracy of some present studies that aim to document user trends and amounts of drugs used by the public. This form of analysis has been employed in Europe for some time now, and comparisons with South Australia ( where the data was collected) are interesting, if not that surprising.

Unfortunately, the full article is only available via subscription atm, so if you have a Uni library membership, I encourage you to read the whole paper.

Population drug use in Australia: A wastewater analysis

by Rodney J. Irvine, Chris Kostakis, Peter D. Felgate, Emily J. Jaehne, Chang Chenemail, Jason M. White


Abstract

Accurate information on drug use in communities is essential if health, social and economic harms associated with illicit drug use are to be addressed efficiently. In most countries population drug use is estimated indirectly via surveys, medical presentations and police and custom seizures. All of these methods have at least some problems due to bias, small samples and/or long time delays between collecting the information and analysing the results. Recently the direct quantification of drug residues in wastewater has shown promise as a means of monitoring drug use in defined geographical areas.

In this study we measured 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine and benzoylecgonine in sewage inflows in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia and compared these data with published European data. Cocaine use was small compared to European cities (p<0.001) but was compensated for by much greater consumption of methamphetamine (p<0.001) and MDMA (p<0.05). MDMA was more popular in regional areas (p<0.05) whereas methamphetamine and cocaine were mainly consumed in the city (p<0.05). Greater than 5-fold increases in MDMA use were detected on weekends (p<0.001). This approach has the potential to improve our understanding of drug use in populations and should be further developed to improve prevention and treatment programs.

 

[pinkanga]

Interesting method of data collection.

Will jump on the uni site later and check it out.

 

[Jabberwocky]

thanks phase, i'll have to have a read of the full article in the coming days

 

[Macee]

Does this mean I can purify sewage in order to get MDMA?

...:D

 

[belarki]

Thanks p_d :D

Related Reading

 

[phase_dancer]

Does this mean I can purify sewage in order to get MDMA?

While I wouldn't wish to be seen as encouraging the practice, that's not necessarily as silly a notion as it sounds. Look at the amounts of drugs that are eliminated from the body unchanged, or as active metabolites. The practice of drinking urine from intoxicated people is known, and there's also mention regarding the ancient Sami Shamans of Scandinavia drinking the urine of Reindeer after they'd eaten the mushroom; BBC Weird Nature - Peculiar Potions (~23.42mins in).

When samples for lab analysis are prepared, depending upon the technique/s used, the desired range of compounds is often first extracted, and while methods may differ somewhat, in essence it's done in much the same way desirable constituents of plants are extracted i.e. by using techniques that rely on solubility and other physical (and sometimes chemical) properties of the target compounds. It would however be difficult to completely isolate/purify some active ingredients in urine even with sophisticated chromatography, but procedures abound for basic (crude) extractions. Of course, it shouldn't need to be said that there are considerable health risks associated with processing, handling consuming etc of waste products. Best to keep it for the analysis side of things imo, where those handling the stuff are adequately protected.