DENVER — It was a tool widely used to detect COVID-19 in communities. Now Denver is looking to test wastewater (what we flush down the toilet) for another health emergency — fentanyl abuse.
Denver wants to know what samples can tell us about drug abuse in the city after seeing a record number of drug overdose deaths in 2023. The city's health department is still in the contracting phase, so they were not ready to talk about it yet. So 9NEWS looked to other cities like San Francisco, who've already started testing wastewater for drugs.
"Hopefully in the future to use this information to predict overdose increases in the city," said Dr. Jeffrey Hom, director of Population Behavioral Health for San Francisco's Department of Public Health. "They help us understand the relative quantities of drugs being used in San Francisco in our case in a timely way."
Dr. Hom said San Francisco's program began in November, and they got some of the first results in December.
"It is supporting what we know about drug use from our medical examiner's data. Fentanyl is being used, cocaine and meth," he said. "The other way this data can be used is to identify the presence of a new drug that may be introduced."
San Francisco is taking samples city wide. New Mexico took a different approach.
"Focusing on schools allows us to get samples across the state from all communities," said Jonas Armstrong, director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the New Mexico Environment Department.
New Mexico's Department of Health issued the public health order after Gov. Lujan Grisham (D) declared substance misuse a public health emergency in September. The state is working with schools and community partners to analyze the data which will help inform decisions on statewide and regional solutions.
Armstrong said New Mexico has results from 106 high schools. The samples collected include anyone who used the bathroom on that day which can include faculty, staff, students, and visitors.
"63% of schools tested positive for cocaine. 13% have tested positive for fentanyl," said Armstrong.
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