Sewage Tested for Signs of Cocaine

[shanti]

Does anyone else think that this is just a HUGE invasion of privacy??


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

Sewage Tested for Signs of Cocaine
Fairfax Participating In Federal Program To Assess Drug Use

By Bill Turque

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 27, 2006; Page B01



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."

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

*snip*

[AussieDave]

1. First sewage to be tested for cocaine should be from the White House

All that stuff Dumbya been snortin' and all that........

[Neil Lisst]

2. that's great to know in case it's ever in Trivial Pursuit!

These kind of studies only confirm what we already know - that a lot of people use cocaine in some form.

Now WHY should I care?! That's the one that gets me stuck.

I'm a libertarian at heart. I don't care if someone wants to snort antifreeze. Their body, their choice. Same for all substances, whatever they are and wherever they come from.

The whole concept of controlling substances from adults is obnoxious to the libertarian. Let each person make his choice and live with the results.

[shanti]

3. well, the way i see it

this is just a slippery slope. who knows when they will decide to check the sewage in a corporate building, or YOUR home? it's like drug testing - i don't like this at all...it doesn't pass the sniff test.

[Neil Lisst]

6. oh, I agree with you.

it is a slippery slope and it starts with their ability to check your trash, pull you over and search your car for no reason, or use dogs to sniff your home

[gatorboy]

4. Either 2.5 percent of its population use cocaine

Or Fraggle Rock's Trash Heap is doing her Scarface impression.

[Tsiyu]

5. Okay, I'm seeing another Sicilian Connection here....

Depending on how advanced these tests are, couldn't they determine exactly where some of the cocaine was grown and produced?

Maybe the Mob in the White House wants to know just who is cutting into their market.

Or how the local stuff compares to the Texas kind.

You just never, never know for sure with this bunch. I'm just saying.





Edited due to lack of white space :P