TY - JOUR
T1 - Population drug use in Australia: A wastewater analysis
AU - Irvine, Rodney
AU - Kostakis, Chris
AU - Felgate, Peter
AU - Jaehne, Emily
AU - Chen, Chang
AU - White, Jason
PY - 2011/7/15
Y1 - 2011/7/15
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Benzoylecgonine
KW - Cocaine
KW - Geographical drug monitoring
KW - MDMA
KW - Methamphetamine
KW - Wastewater analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-79959551168&origin=inward&txGid=ED071DAE22D5D09F8B466DA7F7D6FF4E.mw4ft95QGjz1tIFG9A1uw%3a1
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959551168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.01.037
DO - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.01.037
M3 - Article
VL - 210
SP - 69
EP - 73
JO - Forensic Science International
JF - Forensic Science International
SN - 0379-0738
IS - 1-3
ER -