Interpreting methamphetamine levels in a high-use community

Abstract

Results from a region with high levels of MA use indicate that MA levels do not differ significantly between weekdays and weekends (p = 0.1), consistent with a predominately regular, daily use pattern use. The potential contribution of legal sales of D: - and L: -MA to the mass of MA consumed within the community was estimated to range from 3-8%. Limitations and uncertainties associated with estimating the mass of MA consumption include small contributions of prescription and over-the-counter drugs that are metabolized to MA as well as measurement and sampling variability.

Normalized Diurnal and Between-Day Trends in Illicit and Legal Drug Loads that Account for Changes in Population

“…34 In the region where this municipality is located, legal use of methamphetamine as a component of prescription medications is estimated to account for only 3–8% of the observed methamphetamine loads. 39 Because the estimated number of methamphetamine doses is lower (270–330; Table 2) than that of caffeine, the number of methamphetamine-containing urine pulses is lower. While one might expect episodic (e.g., multiple peaks of shorter duration) trends in methamphetamine loads, methamphetamine has a longer half–life (9–24 h) than caffeine, 28,64 which may explain why the diurnal trends in methamphetamine are cyclic and not episodic.…”

“…8,35–37 Methamphetamine is a stimulant that is largely used as an illegal substance 38 with only minor legitimate use in the US. 39 Cocaine is a widely-used illicit stimulant 40 and its major metabolite, benzoylecgonine (BZE), has been used for back-calculating numbers of cocaine doses from wastewater data. 2,3,7,41 …”

Estimation of illicit drug use in the main cities of Colombia by means of urban wastewater analysis

“…However, precaution is required in the interpretation of this data, as it is an exclusive but minor metabolite of heroin and stability in-sample and in-sewer is low (McCall et al, 2016) . High loads of methamphetamine have been reported in Australia (Irvine et al, 2011;Lai et al, 2011), Asia (Khan et al, 2014), North and East of Europe and North America (Banta-Green et al, 2009;Chiaia-Hernandez et al, 2011), but in Colombia methamphetamine and amphetamine were not detected, indicating a limited use of these drugs.…”

Methamphetamine and ketamine use in major Chinese cities, a nationwide reconnaissance through sewage-based epidemiology

“…It has been applied in Italy (Zuccato et al, 2005(Zuccato et al, , 2008Castiglioni et al, 2013;Repice et al, 2013), England (Bones et al, 2007;Kasprzyk-Hordern et al, 2009;Baker et al, 2014), Belgium(van Nuijs et al, 2009a;van Nuijs et al, 2011a,b), France (-Karolak et al, 2010), Spain (Postigo et al, 2008;Boleda et al, 2009;Postigo et al, 2010;Martínez Bueno et al, 2011;Andr es-Costa et al, 2014), Norway (Harman et al, 2011;Bramness et al, 2015), Finland (Kankaanp€ a€ a et al, 2014;Vuori et al, 2014), Sweden ), Slovakia(Mackul'ak et al, 2014, Croatia (Terzic et al, 2010), and across Europe (Thomas et al, 2012;Ort et al, 2014). Sewage-based epidemiology was also extensively applied in US (Chiaia et al, 2008;Loganathan et al, 2009;Bartelt-Hunt et al, 2009;Bisceglia et al, 2010;Banta-Green et al, 2009;Chiaia-Hernandez et al, 2011;Brewer et al, 2012;Heuett et al, 2015) and Canada (Metcalfe et al, 2010;Yargeau et al, 2014). In contrast, sewage-based epidemiology studies were scarce in regions other than Europe and North America.…”