Water Sector

Dutch cities once again in the top 5 for drugs use

Latest results announced for the Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven sewer water study

In 2015, for the fifth year in a row, a European study into drugs in sewer water was carried out to determine the geographic differences and time trends in drug use amongst citizens. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction – the EMCDDA in Lisbon – today publishes the European Drug Report 2016 containing new results for cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, methamphetamine and cannabis measurements. Once again, for amphetamine use the Netherlands is in the Top 5 of the 80 mostly European cities that took part in the study. Pim de Voogt from the Dutch Watercycle Research Institute (KWR) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and Erik Emke (KWR) analysed the sewer water of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven.

The sewer water study is conducted by the European SCORE network and is part of a long-term study. Results obtained between 2011 and 2014 have been compared with the most recent data from 2015. For one week in March of last year, samples were taken from sewage treatment plants in 80 cities and subjected to chemical analysis. This allowed drug use in a population of more than 35 million people to be analysed. This is the fifth and so far the most extensive study to compare sewer water collected between 2011 and 2015 under a common testing programme in 26 countries.

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