Population drug use in Australia: A wastewater analysis

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 2 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.

Increases in use of novel synthetic stimulant are not directly linked to decreased use of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA)

“…Samples were collected as described previously [21,26]. Generally, wastewater samples were obtained from three (named A, B, and C, respectively in this article) independent wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Adelaide.…”

Removal of benzoylecgonine from water matrices through UV254/H2O2 process: Reaction kinetic modeling, ecotoxicity and genotoxicity assessment

“…The human metabolism of cocaine is dominated by hydrolytic ester cleavage resulting in urine metabolites consisting mostly of BE (45%), ecgonine methyl ester (40%), and a residue of unchanged cocaine (1-9%) [2]. Consequently, BE represents the primary cocaine metabolite and it is detected in almost all surface water (SurW) and sewage treatment plants (STP) effluents in Europe always at levels higher than cocaine [3,4]. Although the removal of BE in conventional STP is typically 80% [5,6], the effluent concentrations is in the range 0.1-3275 ngL -1 [7,8].…”

Analysis of cocaine and nicotine metabolites in wastewater by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Cross abuse index patterns on a major community

“…The analysis of sewage drug biomarkers (SDBs) has recently been established as a complementary approach for monitoring patterns and trends of illicit drug use in communities (Banta-Green et al, 2009;Berset et al, 2010;Castiglioniet al, 2011;Irvine et al, 2011;Karolak et al, 2010;Metcalfe et al, 2010;Reid et al, 2011;Terzic et al, 2010;van Nuijs, et al, 2011a;van Nuijs et al, 2009a;Zuccato et al, 2008). In 2012 it has been published the first harmonized study involving drug wastewater analysis in 19 European cities (Thomas 2012).…”