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

Nantucket officials hope the research will benefit prevention and intervention programs

Authorities in Nantucket are in the process of testing the island’s sewage for cocaine and other hard drugs (Getty/iStock)

Officials on the New England island of Nantucket will begin testing the island’s sewage for cocaine and other drugs.

Authorities at the Health Department hope the testing will help them understand trends in residents' use of illegal substances, according to the Nantucket Current.

“First, this is baselining - If we can get an idea of the standard usage of drugs, we can see if interventions and behaviors change the rate of consumption,” the town’s human services director, Jerico Mele, told the outlet.

“That can give us a scorecard on the efforts and reducing usage. With opiate data, we can confirm our expectations about usage going up around certain times of year, like holidays, or if there are time periods when drug use is heavy.

“We can then communicate to treatment centers to reach out to patients and increase outreach. It’s a tool for communicating public safety, to be aware and be expecting.”

Town officials could also use data from the tests to approach outreach and intervention programs led by prevention organizations and medical providers.

Leaders are simultaneously testing sewage for COVID-19 at the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Facility. The funds for that initiative are coming from a state program.

Testing will be carried out for cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, nicotine, and opiates, along with common diseases like influenza and RSV (Getty/iStock)

Biobot, a Cambridge-based company specializing in wastewater epidemiology, started examining samples from the island in 2020. The town currently sends two samples weekly.

This month, the company will begin testing sewage for cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, nicotine, and opiates, along with common diseases like influenza and RSV.

“They can use the same samples we take,” said David Gray, the head of the Nantucket Sewer Department. “The numbers will be interesting. They want to get a baseline, and that’s the reason we test for COVID. It’s going to be data that is a great forecasting tool.”

Officials said they’re not expecting to post the results of the testing publicly.

Still, they will be shared with healthcare partners, said Mele, and shed light on local drug usage.

“Everyone’s got a good idea of what the situation is, but we have very little direct measurement,” he said. “When we get away from our gut to getting data, we get a better picture of what’s going on.”

In 2001, a report from the National Drug Intelligence Center identified cocaine, particularly crack cocaine, as the biggest drug threat for Nantucket and surrounding areas.