Pilot Study of the Estimation of Amphetamines Consumption in the Polish City of Poznan

Abstract

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Annual Report 2011 in many European countries amphetamines or ecstasy is the second most commonly used illicit substance after cannabis. More reliable and objective method based on the ‘sewage epidemiology’ was applied to estimate the level of amphetamines consumption in Poland. Amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA (ecstasy) were determined in wastewater samples collected from the main Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Polish city of Poznan (about 687,000 people) using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). Back-calculations used in the ‘sewage epidemiology’ approach were applied to estimate the level of consumption of analyzed drugs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to check the monthly differences between determinations. Two-year profiles of consumption for amphetamine methamphetamine and ecstasy were calculated. Results from our city indicate that consumption of amphetamines is one order of magnitude lower than in Western Europe. Therefore, there is a different profile of amphetamines consumption. Consumption of amphetamine is several times lower, but the consumption of ecstasy is relatively high. ANOVA analysis confirmed significant differences between monthly loads of determined illicit drugs