Here be drugs. (Credit: Wanna Thongpao/Shutterstock) Obtaining information about illegal drug use isn't a simple task. The illicit nature of the subject makes gathering information on the who and the what of drug consumption problematic. Self-reported surveys, a common tool, aren't always accurate because people aren't always honest about their drug use. But reliable information on drug use is a requisite for public health officials, and to gather the kind of detailed data necessary researchers in Norway turned to two an odd (at first glance) pairing: wastewater and cell phone usage.
What we put into our bodies has to come out, and drugs like cocaine and MDMA show up clearly in urine samples and therefore sewage samples. Wastewater gives scientists a population-wide glimpse at where people are using drugs, and how much, and it isn't a new idea. It's not necessarily very accurate though, because they don't know how many ...
