Urine to be tested to estimate drug usage among population

URINE testing provides “exciting and promising” opportunities in estimating drug usage in a population, the European drugs agency has said.

Ireland is one of 16 European countries involved in a project to establish and compare drug consumption rates by tests at wastewater treatment plants.

Experts can establish “precise estimates” of the total quantity of particular drugs consumed by a community by measuring the levels of drug metabolites, or breakdown products, excreted in urine.

Research projects have taken place in European cities in recent years, including one in Dublin in 2006.

This research, conducted by academics in Dublin City University, examined community consumption of cocaine in four sampled wastewater treatment plants.

A meeting of researchers held in Dublin last December agreed to set up a collaborative project across Europe.

The project is carrying out tests at wastewater plants over seven consecutive days this month across 20 European cities, including Dublin.

They will test for cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA or ecstasy.

Experts at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) believe the technology has great potential.

“Drug use presents us with a moving target and is difficult to observe,” said EMCDDA director Wolfgang Gotz.

“It is by nature a covert and often stigmatised activity, and no single measure can provide us with the full picture.

“The possibility that a new technique for estimating illicit drug use might be added to our existing multi-indicator repertoire is, therefore, an exciting and promising prospect.”

The technology will also be a useful tool to monitor trends and changing consumption habits as they happen.

Mr Gotz said more than 20 analytical chemists, epidemiologists and engineers gathered at a conference last January to discuss the issue.