Often public health researchers are unable to obtain reliable information about drug use in society. In addition, The illicit nature of the subject makes the collection of information about who and what is consuming, is a problematic thing. Even self-reported surveys, which are nowadays a common tool, are not always accurate because people are not always honest about their drug use.
However, all reliable information about drug use is a requirement for public health officials anywhere in the world. Because of all these factors, Norwegian researchers have designed an unusual strategy that could help them to gather all the necessary data on the subject of drug use. This solution might seem incredible at first sight: wastewater and the use of cell phones.
There is something in the water
Scientists have said that everything we put into our bodies has to come out naturally, and drugs like cocaine and MDMA appear clearly in urine samples and therefore wastewater samples. Then, wastewater will give scientists an overview of the population that uses drugs; another important thing could be: how much people use. Although this idea is not new to the scientific community, some specialists have thought that this may not be very accurate because they do not know how many people are in the sampled area at any given time.
Researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research measured how an influx of people correlated with an increase in drug use.
In a study by the institute mentioned above, scientists observed the Norwegian city of Oslo during the months of June and July last year. That period of time was characterized by great changes in the population; that is to say, the new increase of travelers during the summer; this is something that they could explain thanks to the use of the data provided by the use of the information of the cell phone.
Researchers, however, were able to realize that the level of use of prescription drugs in people could be maintained or even during this period, but levels of cocaine use increased by a factor of 1.6 and MDMA levels in a factor of 2.4 during the weekends, compared with the previous weeks. Normal wastewater analyzes would have shown a leap in drug use, but there would be no way to know if it was because there were more people or because people used more drugs.
The researchers controlled the population as a factor in their analysis, which revealed that people actually use more drugs on the weekend than on other normal days, although it is not an amazing finding, but it establishes this method as a framework for future research in drug use.
Researchers, however, were able to realize that the level of use of prescription drugs in people could be maintained or even during this period, but levels of cocaine use increased by a factor of 1.6 and MDMA levels in a factor of 2.4 during the weekends, compared with the previous weeks. Normal wastewater analyzes would have shown a leap in drug use, but there would be no way to know if it was because there were more people or because people used more drugs.
The researchers controlled the population as a factor in their analysis, which revealed that people actually use more drugs on the weekend than on other normal days, although it is not an amazing finding, but it establishes this method as a framework for future research in drug use.
This procedure has had many criticisms in the scientific societies, due to the use that could give to the personal information collected from the cellular telephones. But, tracking people of a population, to see what types of drugs they are using could be used to target welfare recipients and other communities. For example. a similar plan was put into practice in Australia, but was criticized for a lack of precision earlier this year.
Researchers here chose not to include personal information in their study, but such data are readily available. It remains to be seen how more accurate drug surveys will affect public policy.