Fishing the truth out of the sewers

If you've ever wondered just how many people are high in your neighborhood, well, [URL=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/acs-stt081007.php]science is here to help[/URL]. Steps are underway to test sewage at various levels to determine patterns of drug use with different levels of granularity.

I think it's a fantastic idea.

[QUOTE=article]The approach could provide a fast, reliable and inexpensive way to track trends in drug use at the local, regional or state levels while preserving the anonymity of individuals, says lead researcher Jennifer Field, Ph.D., an environmental chemist at Oregon State University who works with colleagues at Oregon State University and at the University of Washington.

Past estimates of illicit drug abuse in a community were based largely on surveys in which children and adults were asked about their use of illegal drugs. Researchers knew that some were untruthful, with individuals reluctant to admit breaking the law.

Preliminary tests conducted in 10 U.S. cities show the method can simultaneously quantify methamphetamine and metabolites of cocaine and marijuana and legal drugs such as methadone, oxycodone, and ephedrine, according to Aurea Chiaia, a graduate student who is working to refine the process and described details at the ACS meeting.[/QUOTE]
Hopefully after they find out just how many people are high out there, we'll see some sanity in the war on drugs. Yeah, I'm just dreaming maybe, but just to show how far we've come, here's [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHB2I83_N_k]Ron Paul on the Morton Downey Jr. show back in 1988[/URL]. If you don't know who Morton Downey Jr. is, well, he set a standard for television asshattery that has yet to be topped. Seriously, Bill O'Reilly had nothing on this fuckhead.