Seven psychoactive drugs detected in Australian wastewater for the first time

Seven psychoactive drugs have been detected in Australian wastewater for the first time, a three-year surveillance program has found.

Wastewater testing has revealed the presence of synthetic drugs including mephedrone (commonly referred to as meow meow), ethylone and eutylone, which have stimulant effects akin to MDMA.

The drugs are known as new psychoactive substances, a group of compounds that often mimic the effect of existing illicit substances, but which differ chemically and may not be controlled by international drug conventions.

Researchers monitored wastewater in four Australian cities over the New Year period in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Mephedrone, ethylone and eutylone belong to a class of drugs known as synthetic cathinones, which act as stimulants.

David Caldicott, an associate professor and clinical senior lecturer at the Australian National University who was not involved in the study, has previously detected these cathinones in his pill-testing research.

Caldicott said the new wastewater detections may have arisen as a result of expanded surveillance for emerging compounds, as well as from increasing consumption of such drugs.

The study, published in the journal Water Research X, was part of an international collaboration that surveilled wastewater in 16 countries.

The researchers noted that there was a decrease in detections of psychoactive substances over the 2020-21 New Year period, coinciding with the Covid pandemic.