PMID- 34239158
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20211117
LR  - 20221207
IS  - 1175-8716 (Electronic)
IS  - 0028-8446 (Linking)
VI  - 134
IP  - 1537
DP  - 2021 Jun 25
TI  - Spatial, temporal and socioeconomic patterns of illicit drug use in New Zealand 
      assessed using wastewater-based epidemiology timed to coincide with the census.
PG  - 11-26
AB  - AIMS: A discrete experiment in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) timed to 
      coincide with the census was used to investigate the spatial, temporal and 
      socioeconomic patterns of illicit drug consumption in Auckland, Bay of Plenty and 
      Canterbury. METHODS: For seven consecutive days over census week (6 March 2018), 
      wastewater was sampled from seven wastewater treatment plants and analysed for 
      methamphetamine, cocaine (as benzoylecgonine) and 
      3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Detailed sewer catchment maps were 
      developed and, together with the data, were used to analyse drug consumption. 
      RESULTS: Methamphetamine (mean 22.9 +/- 9.9 doses/day/1000 people) was the most 
      consumed drug, followed by MDMA (mean 1.7 +/- 1.5 doses/day/1000 people) and 
      cocaine (mean 0.5 +/- 0.3 doses/day/1000 people). Methamphetamine consumption (and 
      to a lesser extent MDMA) was high compared to that reported for Western nations, 
      while cocaine consumption was extremely low. Cocaine and MDMA consumption were 
      higher in cities compared to towns. In contrast, methamphetamine was typically 
      higher in towns. Cocaine and MDMA were consumed more at weekends. Methamphetamine 
      use was more consistent throughout the week. MDMA and cocaine were correlated 
      with socioeconomic advantage, whereas methamphetamine was correlated with 
      disadvantage. CONCLUSIONS: This paper contextualises illicit drug use in three 
      New Zealand regions containing 18.3% of the national population and confirms the 
      pervasiveness of methamphetamine consumption in New Zealand towns. This work 
      demonstrates how WBE can be used to explore the socioeconomic dimensions of drug 
      use when duly combined with other data sources like censuses.
FAU - Price, Mackay
AU  - Price M
AD  - School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland.
FAU - Wilkins, Chris
AU  - Wilkins C
AD  - Drug Research Team Leader, SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, 
      Massey University.
FAU - Tscharke, Benjamin J
AU  - Tscharke BJ
AD  - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health 
      Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Australia.
FAU - Baker, Tom
AU  - Baker T
AD  - Senior Lecturer, School of the Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland.
FAU - Mueller, Jochen F
AU  - Mueller JF
AD  - Group Leader, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The 
      University of Queensland, Australia.
FAU - Trowsdale, Sam
AU  - Trowsdale S
AD  - Senior Lecturer, School of the Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210625
PL  - New Zealand
TA  - N Z Med J
JT  - The New Zealand medical journal
JID - 0401067
RN  - 0 (Narcotics)
RN  - 0 (Waste Water)
RN  - 0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical)
RN  - 44RAL3456C (Methamphetamine)
RN  - I5Y540LHVR (Cocaine)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Cocaine/analysis
MH  - Humans
MH  - Methamphetamine/analysis
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/analysis
MH  - Narcotics/analysis
MH  - New Zealand
MH  - Substance Abuse Detection/*methods
MH  - Wastewater/*chemistry
MH  - *Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring
MH  - Water Pollutants, Chemical/*chemistry
COIS- Nil.
EDAT- 2021/07/10 06:00
MHDA- 2021/11/18 06:00
CRDT- 2021/07/09 06:52
PHST- 2021/07/09 06:52 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/07/10 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/11/18 06:00 [medline]
PST - epublish
SO  - N Z Med J. 2021 Jun 25;134(1537):11-26.