The Loop Australia, Australia; School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Apr 15;921:170934. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170934. Epub 2024 Feb 14.
In the context of drug prohibition, potential adulteration and variable purity pose additional health risks for people who use drugs, with these risks often compounded by the outdoor music festival environment. Ahead of the imminent implementation of drug checking services in Queensland, Australia, this study aims to characterise this problem using triangulated survey and wastewater data to understand self-reported and detected drug use among attendees of a multi-day Queensland-based music festival in 2021 and 2022.
We administered an in-situ survey focusing on drug use at the festival to two convenience samples of 136 and 140 festival attendees in 2021 and 2022 respectively. We compared survey findings to wastewater collected concurrently from the festival's site-specific wastewater treatment plant, which was analysed using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
Most survey respondents (82 % in 2021, 92 % in 2022) reported using or intending to use an illicit drug at the festival. Some respondents reported potentially risky drug use practices such as using drugs found on the ground (2 % in 2021, 4 % in 2022). Substances detected in wastewater but not surveys include MDEA, mephedrone, methylone, 3-MMC, alpha-D2PV, etizolam, eutylone, and N,N-dimethylpentylone.
Many substances detected in wastewater but not self-reported in surveys likely represent substitutions or adulterants. These findings highlight the benefits of drug checking services to prevent harms from adulterants and provide education on safer drug use practices. These findings also provide useful information on socio-demographic characteristics and drug use patterns of potential users of Queensland's future drug checking service.
在禁毒背景下，毒品的潜在掺假和不稳定纯度给吸毒者带来了额外的健康风险，而这些风险往往因户外音乐节环境而加剧。在澳大利亚昆士兰州即将实施毒品检测服务之前，本研究旨在使用三角调查和废水数据来描述这一问题，以了解 2021 年和 2022 年在昆士兰州举行的为期多天的音乐节上参加者的自我报告和检测到的药物使用情况。
我们在音乐节现场对两个方便样本进行了一项关于药物使用的现场调查，样本分别为 2021 年和 2022 年的 136 名和 140 名音乐节参加者。我们将调查结果与同期从音乐节特定地点废水处理厂收集的废水进行了比较，该废水使用液相色谱串联质谱法进行了分析。
大多数调查受访者（2021 年 82%，2022 年 92%）报告在音乐节上使用或打算使用非法药物。一些受访者报告了潜在的危险药物使用行为，例如使用在地上发现的药物（2021 年 2%，2022 年 4%）。在废水中检测到但未在调查中报告的物质包括 MDEA、美沙酮、甲基酮、3-MMC、α-D2PV、依替唑仑、乙酮、N,N-二甲基戊基酮。
废水中检测到但调查中未报告的许多物质可能代表替代品或掺杂物。这些发现强调了毒品检测服务的好处，可防止掺杂物造成的伤害，并提供有关更安全药物使用实践的教育。这些发现还为昆士兰州未来毒品检测服务的潜在使用者的社会人口特征和药物使用模式提供了有用的信息。
