Use of some illicit drugs decreased in the US during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, while prescription opioid use skyrocketed, according to an analysis of wastewater.
and his colleagues at Murray State University in Kentucky analysed wastewater gathered from two communities in western Kentucky and northern Tennessee between March and July 2020.
Wastewater is water flushed down toilets and sinks from homes that ends up at a sewage treatment plant. “Wastewater has many different types of biomarkers that tell us a lot of things about what’s going on in our community,” says Subedi. “It’s an almost near-real-time approach.”
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The samples were analysed for levels of 10 illegal drugs and 19 prescription drugs that are commonly abused. Between March and July 2020, levels of the opioid-based painkiller hydrocodone in the wastewater increased by 72 per cent. By July 2020, 430 milligrams per day per 1000 people was found in the wastewater.
By comparison, the levels of methamphetamine found dropped 16 per cent over the same time period, and cocaine levels dropped 42 per cent. Concentration levels of prescription antidepressants increased between 7 and 40 per cent, depending on the drug, while anti-anxiety drugs like temazepam and alprazolam increased by nearly 30 per cent.
Subedi hypothesises that the decrease in illicit drugs such as cocaine was caused by a tightening of travel restrictions and economic effects of the pandemic. “People could not get it, and they’re expensive drugs,” he says. “People couldn’t afford it: people lost their jobs.” Likewise, he believes the rise in prescription drugs found in wastewater was enabled by the shift to telemedicine by doctors making it easier to get prescriptions for opioids.
Wastewater analysis is a relatively new method, but is a useful addition to public health analysis, says at the University of Queensland, Australia. “The main limitation of this study is acknowledged by the authors, namely that they only reported data on drug use after the first four months of covid-19.”
Environmental Science & Technology Letters
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