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. 2024 Apr 15:921:170934.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170934. Epub 2024 Feb 14.

Characterising differences between self-reported and wastewater-identified drug use at two consecutive years of an Australian music festival

Cheneal Puljević  1 , Benjamin Tscharke  2 , Ellen Leslie Wessel  3 , Cameron Francis  4 , Rory Verhagen  2 , Jake W O'Brien  2 , Richard Bade  2 , Dhayaalini Nadarajan  2 , Fiona Measham  5 , M J Stowe  6 , Timothy Piatkowski  7 , Jason Ferris  8 , Robert Page  9 , Sarah Hiley  4 , Christopher Eassey  10 , Ginny McKinnon  4 , Genevieve Sinclair  4 , Emily Blatchford  4 , Liam Engel  4 , Alice Norvill  4 , Monica J Barratt  11
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Free article

Characterising differences between self-reported and wastewater-identified drug use at two consecutive years of an Australian music festival

Cheneal Puljević et al. Sci Total Environ. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: In the context of drug prohibition, potential adulteration and variable purity pose additional health risks for people who use drugs, with these risks often compounded by the outdoor music festival environment. Ahead of the imminent implementation of drug checking services in Queensland, Australia, this study aims to characterise this problem using triangulated survey and wastewater data to understand self-reported and detected drug use among attendees of a multi-day Queensland-based music festival in 2021 and 2022.

Methods: We administered an in-situ survey focusing on drug use at the festival to two convenience samples of 136 and 140 festival attendees in 2021 and 2022 respectively. We compared survey findings to wastewater collected concurrently from the festival's site-specific wastewater treatment plant, which was analysed using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Results: Most survey respondents (82 % in 2021, 92 % in 2022) reported using or intending to use an illicit drug at the festival. Some respondents reported potentially risky drug use practices such as using drugs found on the ground (2 % in 2021, 4 % in 2022). Substances detected in wastewater but not surveys include MDEA, mephedrone, methylone, 3-MMC, alpha-D2PV, etizolam, eutylone, and N,N-dimethylpentylone.

Conclusion: Many substances detected in wastewater but not self-reported in surveys likely represent substitutions or adulterants. These findings highlight the benefits of drug checking services to prevent harms from adulterants and provide education on safer drug use practices. These findings also provide useful information on socio-demographic characteristics and drug use patterns of potential users of Queensland's future drug checking service.

Keywords: Drug contamination; Festival; Illicit drugs; Surveys and questionnaires; Wastewater.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The Loop Australia is a not-for-profit organisation aiming to develop the sustainable provision of drug checking services in Australia. Cameron Francis is the paid CEO of The Loop Australia. Fiona Measham is an unpaid board member of The Loop Australia and the unpaid director of The Loop UK (a non-profit non-government organisation that delivers drug checking services). All other authors affiliated with The Loop Australia are unpaid volunteers.