Better Way to Gauge Drug Use in Arizona?

Researchers as reported in the “Journal”  publication on addiction, are excited to be getting some interest from government officials on a new and more accurate way to gauge drug use in any area,  whether in Arizona,  or Calcutta, urban or non urban. 

Testing the wastewater in and around populated areas has been touted as an extremely accurate way to measure how much drug use whether illegal or legal by measuring  the metabolytes left in the wastewater.    A scary thought but one which deserves some focused attention.  

The arrest rate may or may not reflect accurately the amount of drug use in an area.  Some areas may see high arrest rate and low drug use,  and vice versa.  There are too many cross factors to consider,  that make that type of direct ratio measurement inaccurate.  But testing the waste water is a foolproof method of ascertaining the facts of the matter.   Metabolytes tested in various areas have already shown a trend where meth use is seen to have higher levels of use in poorer areas,  outside the city centers,  whereas cocaine for instance is seen to be more prevalent in the more affluent city center population. 

As there is so much secrecy involved in drug abuse,  it may be a way to earmark  an area for more agressive surveillance.   

Additionally,  when testing can show accurately the amount of legal drug residue going back into the system – this might provide useful information for ecologically minded groups who want to do something to clean up the environment from such toxic waste material. 

Perhaps pharmaceutical companies should be required to pay penance for the damage done ecologically.   When I turn on my tap I don’t want to be receiving the left over remains of several hundred thousand drug users metabolytes.   The added expense of removing these metabolytes from my drinking water might be considered a pharma-tax to be paid by the very same corporations who are producing the toxic substances for human consumption.   With the money saved in this way,  perhaps municipalities and towns and cities will have enough money left over in their budget to implement more effective education programs to turn young people away from the growing trend of using drugs.  Indeed, if this trend is not corrected immediately,  I would go so far as to say we are about to enter another “medieval age”  where the wine was safer to drink than the water.  Surely we’ve come a far cry from those dark days.   Or have we?