Contribution of Illicit Drug Use to Pharmaceutical Load in the Environment: A Focus on Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Illicit drug abuse and addiction are universal issues requiring international cooperation and interdisciplinary and multisectoral solutions. These addictive substances are utilized for recreational purposes worldwide, including in sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, conventional wastewater treatment facilities such as waste stabilization ponds lack the design to remove the most recent classes of pollutants such as illicit drug abuse. As a result, effluents from these treatment schemes contaminate the entire ecosystem. Public health officials are concerned about detecting these pollutants at alarming levels in some countries, with potential undesirable effects on aquatic species and increased health hazards through exposure to contaminated waters or recycling treated or untreated effluents in agriculture. Contaminants including illicit substances enter the environment by human excreta following illegal intake, spills, or through direct dumping, such as from clandestine laboratories, when their manufacturer does not follow accepted production processes. These substances, like other pharmaceuticals, have biological activity and range from pseudopersistent to highly persistent compounds; hence, they persist in the environment while causing harm to the ecosystem. The presence of powerful pharmacological agents such as cocaine, morphine, and amphetamine in water as complex combinations can impair aquatic organisms and human health. These compounds can harm human beings and ecosystem health apart from their low environmental levels. Therefore, this article examines the presence and levels of illicit substances in ecological compartments such as wastewater, surface and ground waters in sub-Saharan Africa, and their latent impact on the ecosystem. The information on the occurrences of illicit drugs and their metabolic products in the sub-Saharan Africa environment and their contribution to pharmaceutical load is missing. In this case, it is important to research further the presence, levels, distribution, and environmental risks of exposure to human beings and the entire ecosystem.

Illicit Drugs in Surface Waters: How to Get Fish off the Addictive Hook

“…The excretion of IDs either in their unaltered form or as metabolites can lead to their entry into sewage systems and subsequent survival during WWTP processes. As a result, IDs can be found in various water bodies, including rivers, streams, surface water, and marine environments [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

Algal-Based Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactors for Efficient Wastewater Treatment: A Comprehensive Review

“…According to the study by Ramirez-Morales et al [90], 47% of the 70 medicines from wastewater treatment plants that were tested were discharged into the effluent, providing a health risk to those who drank recycled water [90]. Although PPCPs are found in treated wastewater at much lower concentrations (ng/L) [91,92], they have significant functional impacts, like the induction of intersexuality and antibiotic resistance genes, a reduction in aquatic sperm counts, and impacts on the endocrine system. AHFMBR has developed as a favorable equipment for the mitigation of PPCPs from wastewater [93][94][95].…”

The Environmental Impacts of Illicit Drug Production

“…Prohibition has been attributed to driving illicit drug cultivators to increasingly ecologically remote frontiers, and to the creation of profitable illegitimate markets and environmentally damaging, unregulated production practices and waste disposal (McSweeney, 2015;Walsh & Salomón, 2022, see section 3). Ripanda et al (2022), who evaluated evidence of the pharmaceutical load of illicit drugs on the environment in sub-Saharan Africa through wastewater epidemiology, typified primary and secondary effects of illicit drug exposure to the ecosystem through the food chain, where humans are seen to act as both sources and sinks of contaminants:…”

“…In this typology, the extent of wastewater management and treatment can affect the concentration of damaging pharmaceutical compounds in the environment (Ripanda et al, 2022). However, the extent of wastewater treatment plants and their efficacy is hugely variable globally, and waste that is treated may still contain damaging pharmaceutical compounds which are then released into the environment (Archer et al, 2017; see section 2.5).…”

“…Seasonal variation, including water temperature, river flow, ultraviolet exposure, and rainfall, may also affect the concentrations of drugs in water systems (Zhang et al, 2017). However, due to the persistence of supply of these compounds to the environment, even at low solutions, through wastewater, dumping and other activities (Ter Laak & Emke, 2023), many illicit drug compounds are now considered to be pseudo-persistent or highly persistent (depending on the type of compound and its degradation characteristics) in the environment (Rosi-Marshall et al, 2015;Ripanda et al, 2022). The impacts of this on plant and animal life (biota) over time, including accounting for complex and variable mixtures of chemical compounds, are still poorly understood (Richmond et al, 2018).…”