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Flipz
Universal Cynic
Registered: 09/25/03
Posts: 188
Loc: Midwest
Last seen: 16 years, 4 months
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Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities
#7319094 - 08/21/07 07:18 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant.
The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.
Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking.
"It's a community urinalysis," said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team. The scientists presented their results Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
Two federal agencies have taken samples from U.S. waterways to see if drug testing a whole city is doable, but they haven't gotten as far as the Oregon researchers.
One of the early results of the new study showed big differences in methamphetamine use city to city. One urban area with a gambling industry had meth levels more than five times higher than other cities. Yet methamphetamine levels were virtually nonexistent in some smaller Midwestern locales, said Jennifer Field, the lead researcher and a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State.
The ingredient Americans consume and excrete the most was caffeine, Field said.
Cities in the experiment ranged from 17,000 to 600,000 in population, but Field declined to identify them, saying that could harm her relationship with the sewage plant operators.
She plans to start a survey for drugs in the wastewater of at least 40 Oregon communities.
The science behind the testing is simple. Nearly every drug - legal and illicit - that people take leaves the body. That waste goes into toilets and then into wastewater treatment plants.
"Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete," Field said.
In the study presented Tuesday, one teaspoon of untreated sewage water from each of the cities was tested for 15 different drugs. Field said researchers can't calculate how many people in a town are using drugs.
She said that one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week.
Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers - self-reported drug questionnaires - underestimates drug use.
"We have so few indicators of current use," said Jane Maxwell of the Addiction Research Institute at the University of Texas, who wasn't part of the study. "This could be a very interesting new indicator."
David Murray, chief scientist for U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the idea interests his agency.
Murray said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is testing federal wastewater samples just to see if that's a good method for monitoring drug use. But he didn't know how many tests were conducted or where.
The EPA will "flush out the details" on testing, Benjamin Grumbles joked. The EPA assistant administrator said the agency is already looking at the problem of potential harm to rivers and lakes from legal pharmaceuticals.
The idea of testing on a citywide basis for drugs makes sense, as long as it doesn't violate people's privacy, said Tom Angell of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington-based group that wants looser drug laws.
"This seems to be less offensive than individualized testing," he said.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070821/D8R5L64O0.html
-------------------- Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. -Buddha
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Sebastian23
Stranger
Registered: 02/18/07
Posts: 808
Loc: Bay
Last seen: 16 years, 15 days
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Flipz]
#7319171 - 08/21/07 07:35 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Fuckin freaky.
-------------------- "If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on." -Terence McKenna Marijuana Myths Debunked
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Wonderland420
WTF
Registered: 03/21/07
Posts: 220
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Sebastian23]
#7319195 - 08/21/07 07:41 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Whats next? Collecting hair from barber shops and salons for testing?
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JT
Registered: 02/28/07
Posts: 7,027
Loc: athens
Last seen: 4 years, 8 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Wonderland420]
#7319451 - 08/21/07 08:50 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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it's time to unite. everyone start pissing on the street
really though... i can think of a million more constructive things to waste tax money on than drug testing cities.
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Drone
Derka Derka Derka
Registered: 07/22/04
Posts: 667
Loc: Maryland
Last seen: 5 years, 3 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: JT]
#7319636 - 08/21/07 09:27 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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this could be a good thing....It could help show the failure of the drug war...
give more ammo to the anti-prohibition movement.
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NStoney
Stranger
Registered: 06/24/07
Posts: 105
Last seen: 16 years, 4 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Drone]
#7319900 - 08/21/07 10:19 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Yea I wanna know what city gets the best pot... im moving soon
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rawtoxic
Stranger
Registered: 10/06/02
Posts: 2,097
Loc: smokey mountains
Last seen: 13 years, 7 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: NStoney]
#7319988 - 08/21/07 10:36 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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yeah as long as they don't start testing septic tanks
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dutchmushroom
mushroom invader
Registered: 08/02/06
Posts: 1,393
Loc: Outer Space
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Flipz]
#7320259 - 08/22/07 12:13 AM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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no this isint good for the anti-prohibition movement, becuase once they see that everybody uses drugs and doesint give a fuck that they are illegal then they will just start more propaganda and spend more money trying to "cure the country of this disese"
THEY WILL NEVER STOP!!!
peace out Dm
-------------------- "Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand says: don't you see? Gotta make it some how, on the dreams you still believe, Don't give it up, you've got an empty cup, only love can fill, only love can fill" < Grateful Dead! The bus came by and I got on, and thats when it all began GROWLIGHT KIT, 250w HPS Digital ballast, + Enhanced Spectrum bulb and Reflector Sale Or Trade!
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Ziggen
Bludgeon Yer Eye
Registered: 06/27/05
Posts: 651
Loc: Parts Unknown
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Wonderland420]
#7320368 - 08/22/07 01:04 AM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Wonderland420 said: Whats next?
Next is sensors in every home's drainpipe. Someone smokes a bowl, and then takes a piss in your house -BAM- Instant search warrant. Your door getting kicked down within 15 minutes.
Mr. Orwell wasn't wrong. He just picked a year that was a bit early.
-------------------- Rock over London, rock on Chicago Kmart, it's the savings place
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Drone
Derka Derka Derka
Registered: 07/22/04
Posts: 667
Loc: Maryland
Last seen: 5 years, 3 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Ziggen]
#7320971 - 08/22/07 09:11 AM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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i dont know about that....
they will never admit that the drug war is a failure unless they have some sort of proof that drug use levels have not fallen. Then I want to see how they explain that.
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Divided_Sky
Ten ThousandThings
Registered: 11/02/03
Posts: 3,171
Loc: The Shining Void
Last seen: 15 years, 9 months
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: Drone]
#7321756 - 08/22/07 01:27 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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I just wonder what will happen when they find half the city is smoking pot. Maybe they might come to reason.
They'll have a hard time with LSD though...which as it should be.
-------------------- 1. "After an hour I wasn't feeling anything so I decided to take another..." 2. "We were feeling pretty good so we decided to smoke a few bowls..." 3. "I had to be real quiet because my parents were asleep upstairs..."
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enlightened seed
Utopia is a state of mind
Registered: 05/04/07
Posts: 2,117
Loc: amongst civilization
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Re: Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities [Re: JT]
#7322978 - 08/22/07 07:32 PM (16 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
justin_thyme said: it's time to unite. everyone start pissing on the street
Then corporate America will blame pollution on people pissing anywhere except their toilets! Who knows maybe global warming?!?! Say goodbye to your already HIGHLY taxed incomes and hello to more cameras and prisons!!! By the way I'm not dissing your quote (personally I found it hilarious) , it merely helped me state my opinion!!
I think all the problems are beyond government and have more to do the corporations that are owned by the corporation etc etc... No matter how much money and power they have or think they have more and more people around the globe are awakening to the problems that are touching family's everywhere!
Edited by enlightened seed (08/22/07 07:45 PM)
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kake
The answer to1984 is 1776.
Registered: 05/06/99
Posts: 2,782
Loc: The 66th harmonic
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Funny... I had an epiphany on an LSD trip once, and knew that they were already doing this... or were going to start doing this. It wasn't usual paranoia, it was a deep knowledge of truth that this was happening or was going to happen.
Now I'm a bit afraid of the other prophecies..
-------------------- The answer to 1984 is 1776.
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