Investigating the appearance of new psychoactive substances in South Australia using wastewater and forensic data.

New psychoactive substances (NPS) have increased in use and popularity worldwide. Wastewater analysis has been successfully applied to evaluate illicit drugs use within a population. However, for NPS, such an approach may be limited due to low doses of NPS combined with their ever‐changing composition and usage. The dynamic nature of the NPS market means use may be opportunistic, infrequent, and with few users. Hence, the use of complementary information sources is recommended to improve the knowledge on NPS consumption. The aim of this study was to investigate the changing landscape of NPS use on a community scale by combining wastewater analysis and forensic toxicology. Forensic analysis provided specific information on NPS prevalence in post‐mortem blood samples in Adelaide, South Australia over five years, while wastewater analysis showed community use over the same period. A qualitative liquid chromatography–‐high resolution mass spectrometry method was initially used to screen the wastewater samples. A total of 24 NPS were found: 6 in wastewater only, 13 in forensic post‐mortem toxicology samples only, and 5 in both. As these results showed the presence of NPS, a targeted method was subsequently employed to quantify levels of these NPS in wastewater. Temporal trends were found in wastewater with distinct tendencies for synthetic cathinones visible over the period studied

National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program - Report 2

This is the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program Second Report. It provides statistically valid datasets of drug use and distribution patterns across a large number of sites in capital cities and regional areas. Wastewater analysis is widely applied internationally as a tool to measure and interpret drug use within national populations, with the current national program in Australia representing world best practice. Wastewater analysis provides a measure of one important aspect of national health—the demand for a range of licit and illicit drugs. An understanding of this behaviour allows governments to effectively direct resources to priority areas and monitor the progress of demand and supply reduction strategie

National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program - Report 4

This is the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program Fourth Report. It provides statistically valid datasets of drug use and distribution patterns across a large number of sites in capital cities and regional areas. Wastewater analysis is widely applied internationally as a tool to measure and interpret drug use within national populations, with the current national program in Australia representing world best practice. Wastewater analysis provides a measure of one important aspect of national health—the demand for a range of licit and illicit drugs. An understanding of this behaviour allows governments to effectively direct resources to priority areas and monitor the progress of demand and supply reduction strategie

LC-HRMS suspect screening to show spatial patterns of New Psychoactive Substances use in Australia

New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are an ever-changing class of compounds designed to imitate the effects of current recreational drugs. Such a diverse market is difficult to assess by traditional means, while collected information can become obsolete before it is available. Wastewater-based epidemiology is one technique which can capture information on where and when NPS appear at the community level. The aim of this study was to identify NPS in wastewater samples using a suspect screening approach. Weekend samples were collected from 50 wastewater treatment plants from Australian capital cities and regional areas across all eight States and Territories and screened against a database containing almost 200 NPS. A total of 22 different NPS were found across all regional and metropolitan wastewater treatment plants. Results showed that the most detected compounds were of the cathinone class, with both Alpha-PVP and methcathinone found in every region. In addition, five different synthetic cannabinoids were detected, at least once in half of the regions analysed. Herein, we report the first comprehensive nationwide analysis of NPS and show the utility of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry screening for delivering spatial information of the NPS being consumed in communities

Three years of wastewater surveillance for new psychoactive substances from 16 countries

The proliferation of new psychoactive substances (NPS) over recent years has made their surveillance complex. The analysis of raw municipal influent wastewater can allow a broader insight into community consumption patterns of NPS. This study examines data from an international wastewater surveillance program that collected and analysed influent wastewater samples from up to 47 sites in 16 countries between 2019 and 2022. Influent wastewater samples were collected over the New Year period and analysed using validated liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry methods. Over the three years, a total of 18 NPS were found in at least one site. Synthetic cathinones were the most found class followed by phenethylamines and designer benzodiazepines. Furthermore, two ketamine analogues, one plant based NPS (mitragynine) and methiopropamine were also quantified across the three years. This work demonstrates that NPS are used across different continents and countries with the use of some more evident in particular regions. For example, mitragynine has highest mass loads in sites in the United States, while eutylone and 3-methylmethcathinone increased considerably in New Zealand and in several European countries, respectively. Moreover, 2F-deschloroketamine, an analogue of ketamine, has emerged more recently and could be quantified in several sites, including one in China, where it is considered as one of the drugs of most concern. Finally, some NPS were detected in specific regions during the initial sampling campaigns and spread to additional sites by the third campaign. Hence, wastewater surveillance can provide an insight into temporal and spatial trends of NPS use

National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program - Report 1

This is the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program First Report. It provides statistically valid datasets of drug use and distribution patterns across a large number of sites in capital cities and regional areas. Wastewater analysis is widely applied internationally as a tool to measure and interpret drug use within national populations, with the current national program in Australia representing world best practice. Wastewater analysis provides a measure of one important aspect of national health—the demand for a range of licit and illicit drugs. An understanding of this behaviour allows governments to effectively direct resources to priority areas and monitor the progress of demand and supply reduction strategie

Anabasine-based measurement of cigarette consumption using wastewater analysis

Community tobacco use can be monitored over time using wastewater-based epidemiological approaches by estimating the mass loads of nicotine and its metabolites, cotinine, or hydroxycotinine, in wastewater. However, due to the use of nicotine in smoking cessation products, other sources of nicotine contribute to cotinine and hydroxycotinine loads. The use of nicotine replacement therapies could vary in space and time and mask the true rates of tobacco consumption. Therefore, this work evaluated the content of tobacco specific markers, anatabine and anabasine, in cigarettes, in urine of smokers, and in wastewater. The results indicated that the anabasine content in both licit and illicit cigarettes in Australia is less variable than anatabine and is therefore considered a better measure of tobacco consumption. A study determining the excretion of tobacco-specific alkaloids of smoking and non-smoking volunteers gave an average urinary mass load of anabasine of 4.38 μg/L/person and a daily mass load of 1.13 μg/day/person. Finally, this was compared with the mass loads of anabasine from wastewater-based epidemiology data of 3 μg/day/person to estimate cigarette rates in a South Australian city: equivalent to 2.6 cigarettes/person/day. The rate of decline of cigarette use was greater when using anabasine as a measure of consumption compared with cotinine. This is the first study to estimate the rate of anabasine excretion, which can be used to estimate tobacco use independent of therapeutically prescribed nicotine