14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers have determined in a new study that regions where more cocaine and marijuana are consumed tend to reveal higher concentrations of these drugs in the air. Their presence is measurable in samples collected at street level.
The more people in an area consume these drugs, the higher the residual concentrations experts find in the atmosphere. In this sense, we may all be consuming at least trace amounts of these chemicals.
In some regions, drugs have established such an important presence in the air, that they can be mentioned on the same charts as other pollutants, including smog, ozone, and pollen. Interestingly, the new data may be used to develop new ways of keeping track of drug abuse in a certain area.
At this time, estimating how many people consume illegal substances can be done only through indirect methods, such as for example private questionnaires, police records, community-wide surveys and so on. All these methods are very expensive and time-consuming.
By simply measuring the amount of marijuana or cocaine in the air, researchers may find it easier, faster and cheaper to offer authorities at least a clue about how widespread drug consumption is over a given region.
At the same time, the new conclusions raised some questions about how safe breathing this air is for people who do not consume such drugs. “I wouldn't sound any alarm bells based on this one study,” says Wilson Compton, quoted by ScienceNow.
The expert, an epidemiologist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in Bethesda, Maryland, adds that “the researchers did find this link, and it's worth further exploration. Second-hand cigarette smoke wasn't considered a health threat either, until comparatively recently,” he believes.
According to Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research in Rome analytical chemist Angelo Cecinato – the leader of the research – the work also revealed other interesting correlations, such as for example between atmospheric marijuana concentrations and mental disorders.
Connections were also found between cocaine levels in the air and robbery rates or cancer incidence in the population. However, the exact nature of these relationships could not be derived from the study.
Future investigations will undoubtedly dwell on these issues, seeking to determine whether drug residues trigger any of these problems, or if they are independently produced.