Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant.
The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.
Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking.
"It's a community urinalysis," said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team. The scientists presented their results Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
This is pretty ingenious, actually. The only thing that would worry me is if they manage to work out a way to track you down based on the stuff in your fecal-matter or urine. You know, the way someone can go to a garbage dump, dig around and find your credit card receipts and know what you spent money on? What if genetic material ends up in your crap somehow? Hm... this is all very interesting to me. I might have the beginnings of a scifi story here! ^_^
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