Characterising differences between self-reported and wastewater-identified drug use at two consecutive years of an Australian music festival.

Drug contamination Festival Illicit drugs Surveys and questionnaires Wastewater

Journal

The Science of the total environment
ISSN: 1879-1026
Titre abrégé: Sci Total Environ
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 0330500

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
13 Feb 2024
Historique:
received: 01 12 2023
revised: 24 01 2024
accepted: 10 02 2024
medline: 16 2 2024
pubmed: 16 2 2024
entrez: 15 2 2024
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

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.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
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.
METHODS METHODS
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.
RESULTS RESULTS
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.
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
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.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170934 PMID: 38360330
pubmed: 38360330
pii: S0048-9697(24)01073-8
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170934
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

170934

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Auteurs

Cheneal Puljević (C)

The Loop Australia, Australia; School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: c.puljevic@uq.edu.au.

Benjamin Tscharke (B)

Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Ellen Leslie Wessel (EL)

The Loop Australia, Australia; School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Cameron Francis (C)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Rory Verhagen (R)

Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Jake W O'Brien (JW)

Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Richard Bade (R)

Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Dhayaalini Nadarajan (D)

Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Fiona Measham (F)

The Loop Australia, Australia; Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom; The Loop Drug Checking Service, United Kingdom.

M J Stowe (MJ)

The Loop Australia, Australia; The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Timothy Piatkowski (T)

The Loop Australia, Australia; School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.

Jason Ferris (J)

The Loop Australia, Australia; Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Robert Page (R)

The Loop Australia, Australia; National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Alcohol & Drug Service, St Vincent's Hospital Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Sarah Hiley (S)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Christopher Eassey (C)

The Loop Australia, Australia; National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Ginny McKinnon (G)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Genevieve Sinclair (G)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Emily Blatchford (E)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Liam Engel (L)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Alice Norvill (A)

The Loop Australia, Australia.

Monica J Barratt (MJ)

Social Equity Research Centre and Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia; National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, Australia; The Loop Australia, Australia.

Classifications MeSH