PERSPECTIVES ON DRUGS Wastewater analysis and drugs: a European multi-city study

In 2010, a Europe-wide network (Sewage Analysis CORE Group — Europe) was established to standardise the approach to wastewater analysis and to coordinate national studies. Following the success of an initial study in 19 European cities (Thomas et al., 2012) a comparable study was undertaken covering 23 cities in 11 European countries in 2012 and 42 cities in 21 European countries in 2013 (Ort et al., 2014). This approach made it possible to directly compare illicit drug loads in Europe over a one-week period. This was the first time a European-wide study was performed using a standard protocol and a common quality control exercise while covering multiple countries and years (). Raw 24-hour composite samples were collected during a single week in March 2013. These were analysed for the urinary biomarkers (i.e. measurable characteristics) of the parent drug (i.e. primary substance) for amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA. In addition, the samples were analysed for the main urinary metabolites (i.e. substances produced when the body breaks drugs down) of cocaine and cannabis, which are benzoylecgonine (BE) and THC-COOH (11-nor-9-carboxydelta9-tetrahydrocannabinol).