Wastewater shows Lisbon and Porto with rising cocaine use

Lisbon, Porto and Almada are the cities in Portugal with the highest traces of cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and cannabis detected in their wastewater, according to a study released today carried out in 20 European Union countries and Turkey for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), an EU agency based in Lisbon. The study – which covers the years 2021 and 2022 and analysed wastewater from 104 cities in 20 EU member states and Turkey – shows an overall “increase in cocaine and methamphetamine detections” and describes how analysis of water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) can provide “an increasingly broad picture of the dynamics of drug use and availability”.