Sewage Tested for Signs of Cocaine

[MountainLaurel]

I would so hate to be the researcher for that project. Score another coup in the War on Drugs. :crazy:

If government studies are a reliable guide, about 25,000 residents of Fairfax County -- 2.5 percent of its population -- have used cocaine in the past year. The same data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggest that about 9,000 have partaken within the past 30 days.

Those estimates, based on personal and computer-assisted interviews, rely almost completely on the candor of the respondents. The Bush administration, hoping to someday broaden the government's knowledge of illegal drug use, is probing the mysteries of Fairfax's sewage for a clearer picture.

Earlier this month, the county agreed to participate in a White House pilot program to analyze wastewater from communities throughout the Potomac River Basin for the urinary byproducts of cocaine.

"It's a very strange request," Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said of the White House program. "We're ready to do anything and everything we can do to eliminate illicit drug use. But I'd want to know a lot more about what this will actually lead to."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/26/AR2006032600880.html

[elehhhhna]

1. The should test the toilet in the Oval Office.

[HereSince1628]

5. I can just see where this is leading political campaigns...

Rove and his minions collecting samples from sewers and claiming political opponents "upstream" are the problem.

[rodeodance]

8. that must be the 'potential' they talk of below!

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said it is not seeking to single out specific localities. It also is premature, officials said, to conclude that levels of metabolized cocaine in sewage offer a more accurate index of consumption than traditional survey research.

But David Murray, special assistant to national drug czar John P. Walters, said wastewater testing, which has been tried in Europe, "certainly has that potential."

"We think it will be very, very useful," Murray said.

County workers collected five days' worth of water samples between March 13 and March 17 at the pollution control plant in Lorton, according to a March 20 memo from County Executive Anthony H. Griffin to the Board of Supervisors.

[rodeodance]

2. Well, how will they prove who it came from? I think I have it all--then

along comes stuff like this!

[K-W]

17. They want data suggesting a larger drug problem

to justify more drug-war spending, more arrests etc

[HereSince1628]

3. Newsflash...this will lead to Fairfax residents peeing into cups.

and this is gonna give a lotta Americans really shitty jobs.

[rodeodance]

4. also, good question from this Surpervisor.

"It's a very strange request," Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said of the White House program. "We're ready to do anything and everything we can do to eliminate illicit drug use. But I'd want to know a lot more about what this will actually lead to."

[Submariner]

6. They should also test the dollar bills in Chimpys wallet

for coke residue, and if found convict him on the spot and throw away the key.

I can see it now, drug sensors installed in the drains from new construction homes linked to the DEA headquarters. Bush sux!

[rodeodance]

7. Connolly (D)--I take it the D is for Democrat!--umm.. Have they been

labeling all people in charge with their political affiliation lately? I just notices this.

"It's a very strange request," Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said of the White House program. "We're ready to do anything and everything we can do to eliminate illicit drug use. But I'd want to know a lot more about what this will actually lead to."

[sui generis]

9. utter silliness

There is no way to actively test for cocaine in sewage. They only thing they can test for are cocaine metabolites, since people don't tend to throw cocaine down the toilet.

Cocaine metabolites in sewage are expensive to test for, nearly indistinguishable from analogues found in dental office and hospital sanitary sewer.

That's WHY they had to go door to door and ask anonymously - because they didn't have valid supportable data.

Anyway, cocaine in sewage is the least of our worries. Try estrogen and antibiotics if you want to do something about human and environmental safety.

[rodeodance]

10. and the jet fuel they have found all over!

[MountainLaurel]

11. You're so right on that last point

In the case of the waterway here -- the Potomac River -- studies in the past two years have shown that a huge number of fish in different parts of the river are showing genetic abnormalities: male fish that also have female sex organs internally. The most likely culprit is waste from the chicken farms in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, within the Potomac watershed, and the hormones these chickens are being fed on a daily basis. I expect that similar problems will be cropping up in fetuses within the same region.

But you sure as hell don't hear the White House investigating that, now do you?

[Kailassa]

12. My god ... How desperate for his next fix is Scrub?

He's certainly welcome to anything that's been filtered through my kidneys.

[CrispyQ]

13. That we are wasting money & resources on this

is boggling. Holy crap. Every fucking day I shake my head in wonder at complete insanity & wonder how much longer it can go on.

[rodeodance]

14. k and n.

[rodeodance]

15. send to Keith Olberman

[rodeodance]

16. [e-mail]

[klyon]

18. all coke heads need to piss in the back yard

just kidding seek help