illicit drugs

Wastewater based epidemiology, determination of selected illicit drugs and Covid-19 pandemic

Ing. Věra Očenášková, RNDr. Diana Marešová, Ph.D., Ing. Danica Pospíchalová and Ing. Eva Bohadlová – 4/2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an outbreak of a global health emergency on 30th January 2020 and a pandemic caused by Covid-19 in March of the same year. In our paper, we tried to find out if and how this situation affected drug consumption from the perspective of wastewater analysis. We compared the results of weekly sampling events from 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, which took place at approximately the same period of the year, but in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were affected by the state of emergency and other pandemic-related measures. We monitored the concentration of selected drugs – THC, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, and some of their metabolites (amphetamine and benzoylecgonine) in wastewater samples taken at the inflow to wastewater treatment plants. According to our measurements, virtually all monitored drugs experienced changes in their consumption.

Determination of selected illicit drugs in wastewater using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Ing. Danica Pospíchalová, RNDr. Diana Marešová, Ph.D., Ing. Věra Očenášková, Bc. Tereza Šafránková and Ing. Eva Bohadlová – 2/2020

The wastewater-based epidemiology approach to the analysis of illicit drugs was conceptualized in 2001 and for the first time was applied in 2005 for cocaine estimation in Italy. Further, other illicit drugs as heroine, cannabis and amphetamine have been estimated.

Municipal wastewater as a diagnostic medium of the City of Prague

Ing. Věra Očenášková, Ing. Petr Tušil, Ph.D., MBA, RNDr. Diana Marešová, Ph.D., Ing. Danica Pospíchalová and Ing. Nikola Cielecká – 2/2020

The article informs about regular, almost two-year long monitoring of municipal wastewater at selected sampling points of the Prague sewerage network. Selected illicit drugs (e.g. methamphetamine, MDMA, THC, cocaine), nicotine and its metabolites and the ethanol metabolite ethyl sulphate are monitored in municipal wastewater.

Municipal wastewater as a diagnostic medium

Ing. Věra Očenášková – 1/2018

The paper outlines the possibilities of using the epidemiological approach to the analysis of municipal wastewater to monitor the lifestyle of the population, its dietary habits, the environmental impacts on humans, the assessment of the state of health of the population and monitoring the consumption of illicit drugs and other substances in the monitored population

Use of wastewater‑based epidemiology for monitoring of illicit drugs consumption in Czech and international context

Ing. Věra Očenášková – 6/2016

This paper presents a brief summary of information about the project Determination of the amount of illicit drugs and their metabolites in municipal wastewater – new tool for obtaining of complementary data on illicit drug consumption in the Czech Republic and about the 2nd International Conference on “Wastewater‑based drug epidemiology“, which was held from 11.–15. 10. 2015 in Ascona, Switzerland.