The Government has found a new way to find out how many illegal drugs are currently being cycled through the city. They know where, they know when, and the they know how much. But do you know how they know? It’s pretty gross! Sewage. That’s right every time you do a drug and you leave a bit of it in the toilet (hopefully not on the street or anywhere else) and then it runs into our sewer systems and then you’re busted!
That’s right, scientists are actually able to use sewage in order to “paint an accurate portrait of drug abuse in communities.” Scientists have found everything from cocaine and methamphetamine’s to heroin and marijuana. And this may be the most honest system yet.
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.
If you’re like me, you’re wondering how accurate can a system like this be. Well, more precise than you may ever imagine.
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.
For every 1,000 people, about 210 milligrams of heroin were used daily in London, compared with 70 in Milan and 100 in Lugano. Amphetamine use also was higher in London.
The scientists were even able to use sewage to estimate individual use and weekly trends. For instance, they estimated that people in Milan used twice as much cocaine, about 35 grams per person per year, than Italy’s government surveys had suggested.
Cocaine use peaked on Saturdays, while heroin and marijuana use remained steady week long.
Throughout this entire study, there has been one thing that has remained the same, “You may see differences from place to place, but there’s always something.” Every city has a drug problem, it’s just the drug that varies.
Although this new system of testing for illegal drugs is not used everywhere yet “the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to add illicit drugs to the array of substances that could be monitored daily at treatment plants.”
So be careful LA! Hide your drugs or pee in a bush! It’s only a matter of time before they find you!
Photo by Elsie Esq.Â
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1 response so far ↓
1 Bobbie // Jun 23, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Oh Lordy, that’s disgusting! The only thing that could be worse is to have the job of testing that sewage.
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