Examining Drug Content in Crop Over Activities: NCSA to Conduct Wastewater Analysis for Drug Abuse Research

The National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) will examine wastewater from Crop Over fetes and activities for drug content as part of a new drug abuse research initiative, it said Wednesday.

As the government agency for research and education on drug abuse released the findings from the 2022 Barbados Drug Information Network (BARDIN) Report, research and information officer Laura Foster told reporters the sewage testing would be part of a move to ramp up research on drug use in Barbados under an internationally funded programme.

Noting that the project was in the planning stages, she said Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were the other two countries that would benefit from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission’s initiative on the trafficking, sale, distribution and use of drugs.

“This study is slated to be conducted in the next couple of months [and] is going to be using a qualitative approach with a heavy reliance on interviews,” she told reporters in a briefing at the NCSA’s Belleville base. “So we’re going to be going to key informants, people who have inside knowledge, be it professionals [or] potential users. We’re really going to look at this using a well-rounded approach, but I’m suggesting that we also buttress it with what they call a wastewater analysis.”

Wastewater analysis is a “particular type of study” to estimate community use of certain drugs, Foster said.

“And it does this by testing the waters for drugs themselves as well as the metabolites of drugs,” she explained.

Foster suggested Crop Over would be an ideal time to carry out this type of testing.

“One common approach to studies of this nature is to conduct them at parties and festivals and so on because the likelihood for drug use is higher in situations like these,” the NCSA researcher said. “I’m recommending that this study be conducted during Crop Over. We go to the events and we test the wastewater in the chemical toilets and that way we can have an idea of what substances are being used here in Barbados.”

This project, she said, would be a major undertaking and require assistance.

“In order to make this study a reality, we’re going to need the input and involvement of our Forensic Sciences Centre. We’re also going to need the input and involvement of the Barbados National Standards Institution. I’m also recommending that they not just work with us to make the study happen, in terms of the testing, but they also work with us to design it.