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US vacation hotspot testing water supply for drugs

Officials on the New England island of Nantucket will begin testing the island’s sewage for cocaine and other drugs. — Officials on the New England island of Nantucket will begin testing the island’s sewage for cocaine and other drugs. (Getty/iStock)

Nantucket officials are beginning to test the island's sewage for cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, nicotine, and opiates.
The Health Department aims to use this data to understand trends in illegal substance use and assess the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs.
Biobot, a Cambridge-based company, will conduct the drug testing using samples already collected for COVID-19 and other disease monitoring.
The initiative seeks to provide a data-driven understanding of local drug usage, moving beyond anecdotal evidence.
Test results will be shared with healthcare partners to inform outreach and treatment efforts, though they will not be made public.

Cape Cod summer hotspot testing its sewage for cocaine to find out how hard islanders have been partying — In full