École des Sciences Criminelles, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
École des Sciences Criminelles, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Forensic Sci Int. 2020 Apr;309:110148. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110148. Epub 2020 Jan 15.
This article describes the application of a recently proposed framework for deploying wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to monitor illicit drug use within festivals (Benaglia et al., 2019). The festival under study was a week-long music festival in Switzerland (Swiss Festival) which attracted around 50,000 people daily. Wastewater sampling was performed during its 2014 and 2015 editions. As the Swiss Festival's wastewater is conveyed to the sewage treatment plant (STP) of the nearby city, to assess illicit drug use when there is no festival (i.e. the background consumption) wastewater sampling was also carried out during an off-festival week in 2015. During the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Swiss Festival, WBE highlighted that the most consumed illicit drugs were cannabis, MDMA, cocaine and amphetamine. Excluding cannabis, the means per capita loads of all illicit drugs were not statistically different between both editions of the Swiss Festival. The results were then compared to those of an Australian festival which had also been subject of a quantitatively assessed illicit drug use study (Lai et al., 2013). This comparison confirmed that MDMA is highly prevalent, as well as amphetamine, although to a lesser extent. Consumption of cocaine (in Switzerland) and methamphetamine (in Australia) is also high, but their use seems to be related to their availability (i.e. to the country where the festival takes place). Furthermore, it was observed that MDMA and amphetamine are more consumed during the festival compared to normal times, when there is no festival. This might suggest that their availability is increased and therefore, that a market for these substances potentially exists during the festival. This last hypothesis was assessed by consulting drug seizures made by the police during the 2015 Swiss Festival. Despite very limited data, police records suggested that most of the drugs were purchased at the festival, which supports the previous hypothesis. Results validate, on the one hand, WBE as a useful indicator to monitor illicit drug use within festivals and on the other hand, the suggested framework for deploying WBE in such environment. In addition, this study suggests the need for prevention and harm reduction measures targeted on MDMA and amphetamine during the Swiss Festival, such as drug checking laboratories.
本文描述了最近提出的一种框架在监测节日期间非法药物使用的废水流行病学（WBE）中的应用（Benaglia 等人，2019 年）。研究的节日是瑞士的一个为期一周的音乐节（瑞士音乐节），每天吸引约 50000 人。在其 2014 年和 2015 年的版本中进行了废水采样。由于瑞士音乐节的废水被输送到附近城市的污水处理厂（STP），为了评估没有节日时（即背景消费）的非法药物使用情况，2015 年还在非节日周进行了废水采样。在瑞士音乐节的 2014 年和 2015 年版本中，WBE 强调最常消费的非法药物是大麻、MDMA、可卡因和苯丙胺。不包括大麻，所有非法药物的人均负荷均值在瑞士音乐节的两个版本之间没有统计学差异。然后将结果与已经进行了定量评估非法药物使用研究的澳大利亚节日（Lai 等人，2013 年）进行了比较。这一比较证实，MDMA 非常普遍，安非他命也是如此，尽管程度较轻。可卡因（在瑞士）和甲基苯丙胺（在澳大利亚）的消费也很高，但它们的使用似乎与其可获得性有关（即与举办节日的国家有关）。此外，观察到 MDMA 和苯丙胺在节日期间的消费比没有节日时正常时期更高。这可能表明它们的供应增加了，因此在节日期间这些物质的市场可能存在。这一最后假设通过参考 2015 年瑞士音乐节期间警方的毒品缉获情况进行了评估。尽管数据非常有限，但警方记录表明，大部分毒品是在节日期间购买的，这支持了之前的假设。结果一方面验证了 WBE 作为监测节日期间非法药物使用的有用指标，另一方面验证了在这种环境中部署 WBE 的建议框架。此外，这项研究表明，在瑞士音乐节期间需要针对 MDMA 和苯丙胺采取预防和减少伤害的措施，例如药物检测实验室。
