Sewage Reveals London Is Cocaine Capital Of Europe

Sewage is providing a glimpse at just how much London residents like cocaine.

The city “is the cocaine capital of Europe for the second year running, an official study of drug concentrations in sewage reveals,” ITV reported.

Sewage analysis can provide researchers with highly-specific information about drug use.

“The group used recent analyses of wastewater in conjunction with drug-seizure data and other surveys, to isolate regions of growth and change in various drug markets, and generate its 2016 report — a sort of European State of the Union for stoners. While it’s light on certain specifics — like exactly who was doing all this testing and what they got paid — the report confirms that this process is more or less exactly what it sounds like: ‘community level analyses of drug residues in municipal wastewater, carried out in cities across Europe,’” Inverse reported.

Experts say the upside of using wastewater to monitor drug consumption is that it provides a closeup on the habits of particular cities. Monitoring wastewater “works so well that researchers can now explain the cultural norms surrounding drug use in particular cities. That’s helpful in a way that, say, knowing Seattle-area fish are coked to the gills, is not,” the report said.

The report from the European Union’s drug monitoring agency, dubbed the 2016 European Drug Report, showed the following trends, according to ITV:

• The average daily concentration of cocaine in London's wastewater was 909mg per 1,000 people last year — up from 737mg in 2014
• The next closest level was 642mg in Amsterdam
• When weekend samples only are taken into account, the concentration for London rises to 1044

The same study found that ecstasy is making a comeback. The drug “is returning to popularity with both established drug users and a new generation, but this time powders and tablets are likely to contain much higher doses than in previous years,” The Guardian reported.

The U.S. also contends with drugs in the water supply.

Water Online previously reported: “It has long been known that there are trace amounts of PPCPs (pharmaceutical and personal care products) that escape our wastewater treatment plants and end up in waterways, including drinking water sources... Though unregulated, PPCPs are on the EPA’s radar via the Third Contaminant Candidate List (CCL3) and the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) — precursors to possible regulatory action.”

For similar stories visit Water Online's Wastewater Measurement Solutions Center.