The consumption of amphetamines in Spain is concentrated in an autonomous community. And we know it with a “single” trick
The surveys are very useful for “taking the pulse” to the population, but they can also lie (or at least fool) in many ways. Not this is not a cooking thing and how its results are interpreted: sometimes the lack of truth comes from the basis, and asking for some issues can be very delicate. And a great example of this is found in illegal substances, such as drugs. OEDA report. He last report prepared by the Spanish Observatory of Drugs and Addictions (OEDA) and the Government Delegation for the National Drug Plan He investigated not only social perceptions about the drug use of Spaniards, but also in their consumption habits. One of the most striking results was the “differential clear” in the pattern of amphetamine consumption: and the report found that the consumption of this substance was concentrated in an autonomous community: Euskadi. Estimates on the consumption of this substance in the Basque Autonomous Community far exceed the state average and records in the regions treated in the report. According to these calculations, the consumption of SPEED (name with which reference is also made to this substance) oscillates, according to areas Between 700 and 2,100 milligrams A day for every 1,000 inhabitants, while in the rest of the areas of study the average estimated consumption was 24 mg/(day 1,000 inhabitants). Not as easy as it seems. Estimating the consumption of this and other substances can be complicated. In the case of illegal drugs, its illicit nature makes the task of investigating its consumption complicated through simple surveys. To this we must add the social perception of drugs as taboo, something that also applies to legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco. So how are scientists save the scientists studying these substances? OEDA reports They consult the population to know their perception of this type of substance (both legal and illegal). However, to know drug use habits follow another strategy: search in waste. Sewage. Specifically, in wastewater. Our body discards these substances or their metabolites (the compounds derived from the medicalization of a compound) through the urine, which implies that the tests end up in our wastewater and from there in the water treatment plants. The equipment responsible for the analysis took water samples in a series of purifying stations sewage (WWTP) distributed in various autonomous communities, 28 in total. The samples were taken over a week (usually in spring) in the years between 2021 and 2023. In some of the stations additional samples were taken in the second half of the year. Different habits. None of the substances analyzed presented a pattern of consumption as centered as the case of amphetamines, although in the case of cannabis, for example, some trends with the Catalan stations and the Canarian station can be interviewed indicating the areas of greatest consumption. On average, a consumption of 13 g/(day 1,000) of THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) was estimated. The study of wastewater also gives us information about legal substances such as alcohol and nicotine. The median reading of the national WWTP ethanol showed an estimated consumption of 7.6 l/(day 1,000 inhabitants). In the case of nicotine on the other hand, the global median indicated a consumption of 1,641 mg/(day 1,000 inhabitants). Not only Spain. This type of analysis based on wastewater is not exclusive to Spain. At European level we can also find similar studies. Another recent study Performed by the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) analyzed consumption patterns in European countries and observed that Spain (as well as the Netherlands) showed a relatively high consumption of substances such as cocaine, MDMA, THC or ketamine. Of course, in this case, the study analyzed less water treatment stations: six located in different parts of the Mediterranean coast and one more in Galicia. The concentration of stations in the Mediterranean and absence of samples in other highly populated areas such as Madrid implies a serious limitation in this study if we want to extrapolate its results to the whole. In Xataka | Drugs, mental health and pre -Hispanic civilizations: the clash between modern medicine and millenary traditions Image | Colin Davis / Abdo Alshreef
