Brandon Stamper, Waseem Gul, Murrell Godfrey, Shahbaz W. Gul, and Mahmoud A. ElSohly
Prescription pain killers, like fentanyl, merperidine, and tramadol, and heroin substitutes like EDDP and methodone, are widely abused drugs nationwide. Using the study done by Gerrity et al. as a base for the experiment, wastewater from Oxford, MS and from the University of Mississippi was tested for the drugs and their corresponding metabolites during game day and non-game day weekends using LC-MS-MS.
The results determined that tramadol was used both at the University of Mississippi and in the City of Oxford on both game day and non-game day weekends. Merperidine and it’s metabolite were found at low detection levels only in the Oxford community. On game days against ULL and the University of Tennessee showed a noticeable increase in methadone on campus. Fentanyl and PCP were not found in any samples.
Understanding which drugs are in use in a community can help police target and monitor drug use to help enforcement. This is the third study of wastewater completed in Oxford, MS and more research on the subject is in the works.