Temporal trends in drug use in Adelaide, South Australia by wastewater analysis - PubMed

Temporal trends in drug use in Adelaide, South Australia by wastewater analysis

Benjamin J Tscharke et al. Sci Total Environ. 2016.

Abstract

Analysis of municipal wastewater for drug metabolites can reveal the scale of drug use within communities. An Australian city with a population of 1.2million inhabitants was assessed for 4 stimulants: cocaine, methamphetamine, 3.4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and amphetamine; 6 opioids: codeine, morphine, heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone and methadone; 11 new psychoactive substances (NPS); benzylpiperazine (BZP), trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP), methcathinone, methylone, mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), alpha pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP), paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA), 25C-NBOMe, 25B-NBOMe, 25I-NBOMe; and cannabis, for up to four years between December 2011 and December 2015. Temporal trends revealed increasing usage rates of methamphetamine, cocaine, oxycodone, and fentanyl, while decreasing rates of use were observed for MDMA, BZP and methylone. Use of other opioids and cannabis was generally stable across years, while use of new psychoactive substances fluctuated without an apparent direction. Opioids and cannabis were used at a consistent level through the course of the week, while use of stimulants and some NPS increased on the weekend. Seasonal differences in use were observed for MDMA and cannabis (p$_amp_$lt;0.05) where, on average, MDMA use was approximately 90% higher in December than in other months and cannabis use was approximately 45% lower in each February. Residual month-to-month variability measures on trend-free data showed NPS use had higher variability than the stimulants and opioids. Frequent wastewater sampling and analysis over prolonged periods has yielded valuable insights into long-term drug use trends, in some instances revealed important within-year trends, and demonstrated the differing patterns of use of drugs on weekends compared to weekdays.

Keywords: Cannabis; New psychoactive substance; Opioids; Stimulants; Trend analysis; Wastewater.

Similar articles

• Wastewater-based assessment of regional and temporal consumption patterns of illicit drugs and therapeutic opioids in Croatia.

  Krizman I, Senta I, Ahel M, Terzic S. Krizman I, et al. Sci Total Environ. 2016 Oct 1;566-567:454-462. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.075. Epub 2016 May 24. Sci Total Environ. 2016. PMID: 27232972

• Assessing the impact of a major electronic music festival on the consumption patterns of illicit and licit psychoactive substances in a Mediterranean city using wastewater analysis.

  Senta I, Krizman-Matasic I, Kostanjevecki P, Gonzalez-Mariño I, Rodil R, Quintana JB, Mikac I, Terzic S, Ahel M. Senta I, et al. Sci Total Environ. 2023 Sep 20;892:164547. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164547. Epub 2023 Jun 2. Sci Total Environ. 2023. PMID: 37270014

• Long-term monitoring of drug consumption patterns in a large-sized European city using wastewater-based epidemiology: Comparison of two sampling schemes for the assessment of multiannual trends.

  Krizman-Matasic I, Senta I, Kostanjevecki P, Ahel M, Terzic S. Krizman-Matasic I, et al. Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jan 10;647:474-485. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.441. Epub 2018 Aug 1. Sci Total Environ. 2019. PMID: 30086499

• A global systematic review and meta-analysis on illicit drug consumption rate through wastewater-based epidemiology.

  Zarei S, Salimi Y, Repo E, Daglioglu N, Safaei Z, Güzel E, Asadi A. Zarei S, et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Oct;27(29):36037-36051. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-09818-6. Epub 2020 Jun 27. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020. PMID: 32594443 Review.

• [Research Advances in the Monitoring of New Psychoactive Substances in Municipal Wastewater].

  Yuan S, Luo RX, Xiang P. Yuan S, et al. Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2021 Aug;37(4):470-478. doi: 10.12116/j.issn.1004-5619.2021.310601. Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2021. PMID: 34725998 Review. Chinese.

Cited by

• Change in the chemical content of untreated wastewater of Athens, Greece under COVID-19 pandemic.

  Alygizakis N, Galani A, Rousis NI, Aalizadeh R, Dimopoulos MA, Thomaidis NS. Alygizakis N, et al. Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 10;799:149230. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149230. Epub 2021 Jul 30. Sci Total Environ. 2021. PMID: 34364275 Free PMC article.

• Interpol review of controlled substances 2016-2019.

  Jones NS, Comparin JH. Jones NS, et al. Forensic Sci Int Synerg. 2020 May 24;2:608-669. doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2020.01.019. eCollection 2020. Forensic Sci Int Synerg. 2020. PMID: 33385148 Free PMC article. Review.

• 'Worth the test?' Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia.

  Groves A. Groves A. Harm Reduct J. 2018 Apr 10;15(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s12954-018-0216-z. Harm Reduct J. 2018. PMID: 29631613 Free PMC article.

• Temporal profile of illicit drug consumption in Guangzhou, China monitored by wastewater-based epidemiology.

  Zhang X, Huang R, Li P, Ren Y, Gao J, Mueller JF, Thai PK. Zhang X, et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Aug;26(23):23593-23602. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-05575-3. Epub 2019 Jun 15. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019. PMID: 31203544

• 'The Drug Survey App': a protocol for developing and validating an interactive population survey tool for drug use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

  Conigrave JH, Wilson S, Conigrave KM, Chikritzhs T, Hayman N, Dawson A, Ali R, Perry J, Fitts MS, Degenhardt L, Doyle M, Egert S, Slade T, Ezard N, Dzidowska M, Lee KSK. Conigrave JH, et al. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2022 Mar 14;17(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s13722-022-00298-2. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2022. PMID: 35287718 Free PMC article.

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Elsevier Science

• Other Literature Sources

  • scite Smart Citations