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Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities
myway ^ | Aug 21, 2007 | SETH BORENSTEIN

Posted on 08/21/2007 5:14:33 PM PDT by secretagent

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; bigbrother; cities; donutwatch; drugs; drugwar; govwatch; privacy; privacyrights; testing; toiletpolice; wod
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'The idea of testing on a citywide basis for drugs makes sense, as long as it doesn't violate people's privacy, said Tom Angell of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington-based group that wants looser drug laws. "This seems to be less offensive than individualized testing," he said.'

Hey, we already have the Congress mandating toilets. What have you got to hide?

1 posted on 08/21/2007 5:14:37 PM PDT by secretagent
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To: secretagent

Can you imagine what kind of stuff they’ll find in San Francisco’s wastewater?


2 posted on 08/21/2007 5:20:02 PM PDT by Triggerhippie (Always use a silencer in a crowd. Loud noises offend people.)
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To: secretagent

“What this city needs is an enema!”


3 posted on 08/21/2007 5:21:29 PM PDT by Williams
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To: secretagent

There’s no reason I can think of which would prevent them from extending such a monitoring program down to individual neighborhoods, or even homes and apartments buildings, hmmm...


4 posted on 08/21/2007 5:24:25 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: secretagent

Piss outside boys, piss outside.


5 posted on 08/21/2007 5:26:14 PM PDT by Jaysun (It's outlandishly inappropriate to suggest that I'm wrong.)
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To: LibWhacker

Yow can pee in private, but your pee is public knowledge.


6 posted on 08/21/2007 5:33:27 PM PDT by Lokibob (Some people are like slinkys. Useless, but if you throw them down the stairs, you smile.)
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To: secretagent

Another thing... I wonder how they rule out the illegal dumping of expired drugs (i.e., down the toilet) by hospitals, pharmacies and patients? If they can’t correct for that, they’ll overestimate how much drug use is actually going on a city.


7 posted on 08/21/2007 5:34:02 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: secretagent

“The folks in this city are strung-out on peanuts & corn!”


8 posted on 08/21/2007 5:45:17 PM PDT by Sax
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To: secretagent

Birth control may be harming state's salmon

Birth control may be harming state's salmon Synthetic estrogen in water seems to ... How fish are affected by such chemicals in the wild remains unclear. ...
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/124939_estrogen04.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

So yeah, they can also test birth control through waste water and compare that to levels of abnormalities in fishery and amphibious wildlife in any drainage system. Women have destroyed the Chesapeake estuary, quite literally.

9 posted on 08/21/2007 6:00:30 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: secretagent
Oh man, does that mean that I'm going to have to get my sister to pee for me all the time from now on?


10 posted on 08/21/2007 6:01:31 PM PDT by Sopater (A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. ~ Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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To: JerseyHighlander

Chesapeake estrusuary?


11 posted on 08/21/2007 6:03:53 PM PDT by amchugh (large and largely disgruntled)
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To: LibWhacker

If you have no reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to a bag of garbage, you certainly have none as to what you flush.


12 posted on 08/21/2007 6:07:00 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: secretagent
Will there be any checking of the Capitol's sewage?

No, I didn't think so.

13 posted on 08/21/2007 7:25:10 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (May the heirs of Charles Martel and Jan Sobieski rise up again to defend Europe.)
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To: secretagent

And I thought it was bad having the Government in your bedroom...now they’re gonna be in your toilet! Thank goodness I have a septic system. Well water, too...which means I have none of that damn fluoride to contaminate my precious bodily fluids.


14 posted on 08/21/2007 7:57:24 PM PDT by this is my name not yours (Free speech is the escape valve that keeps some people from picking up a rifle.)
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To: KarlInOhio
H-O-L-L-Y-W-E-I-R-D!

They'd need some heavyduty, unbreakable monitoring equipment to get an accurate reading on that place.

15 posted on 08/21/2007 8:33:39 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: secretagent
It would not take much, with a map of a city sewer system to tie usage down to a single block or neighborhood. When that happens, wait for the SWAT sweeps.

As much as I am against drugs, I do not want gestapo style neighborhood door-to-door sweeps for contraband, either.

It does not take much to extrapolate. Once it has become an established tactic, where ever for whatever, no one or thing will be safe from searches based on some study which discloses someone's bad habits in the neighborhood.

In response to complaints about that, every residence's wastewater could e monitored, just as garbage can be freely rooted through.

16 posted on 08/21/2007 8:45:36 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: secretagent
Italian river 'full of cocaine'

Scientists have found large quantities of cocaine residue in a river in northern Italy - suggesting consumption is much higher than previously thought.

They say they found the equivalent of 40,000 doses a day in the Po valley, home to about five million people.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457218/posts

17 posted on 08/21/2007 9:38:41 PM PDT by Ken H
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From this thread's article:

...one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine.

-snip-

Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers - self-reported drug questionnaires - underestimates drug use.

18 posted on 08/21/2007 9:45:58 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Smokin' Joe
It would not take much, with a map of a city sewer system to tie usage down to a single block or neighborhood.

Probable cause.

Just leave your doors unlocked (and open) so the Police don't break them down when doing their no-knock raid.

19 posted on 08/21/2007 11:09:32 PM PDT by glorgau
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To: Triggerhippie
Random drug test ALL government public teachers, Congress, those that occupy the White House, the Senate, and all government employees at the state and local level, including city council members, mayors etc.

If it's good for Home Depot types, and middle class America, it's good for those in control.

20 posted on 08/21/2007 11:14:37 PM PDT by dragnet2
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