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Related Concept Videos

Drug Excretion: Miscellaneous Routes01:10

Drug Excretion: Miscellaneous Routes

Drug excretion involves various organs, including the liver, intestines, skin, and eyes. In the case of drugs or toxins, they can be actively secreted into bile by transporters in the hepatocyte's canalicular membrane. These substances enter the GI tract during digestion and may be reabsorbed into the body from the intestine. This process, known as enterohepatic recycling, can significantly prolong the presence and effects of a substance in the body. To interrupt this cycle, specific substances...
Drug Abuse and Addiction: Pharmacological Phenomena01:15

Drug Abuse and Addiction: Pharmacological Phenomena

Drug dependence, abuse, and addiction are complex phenomena that can precipitate various abnormal states. Physical dependence refers to a state of pharmacological adaptation to a drug. This adaptation often results in tolerance—a reduced response to the drug after repeated administrations. When the drug use is abruptly stopped, withdrawal symptoms occur due to the body's need to readjust from the pharmacologically induced imbalance. However, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms do not necessarily...
Drug Excretion: Pulmonary and Glandular Routes01:22

Drug Excretion: Pulmonary and Glandular Routes

Gaseous substances like general anesthetics are absorbed and excreted through the lungs via simple diffusion. This process depends on factors such as pulmonary blood flow, respiration rate, and the substance's solubility. Gaseous anesthetics like nitrous oxide with low blood solubility are excreted rapidly, while compounds like alcohol, with high blood and tissue solubility, are excreted slowly.
Drugs can also be excreted in breast milk, which is crucial for breastfeeding infants. The process...
Drug Control Governance: Regulatory Bodies and Their Impact01:03

Drug Control Governance: Regulatory Bodies and Their Impact

Drug control governance involves the oversight and regulation of pharmaceuticals to ensure their safety and efficacy while preventing illegal drug use and trafficking. Regulatory bodies, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union's European Medicines Agency (EMA), play a central role in this process. These agencies evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs before they can be marketed. They fund clinical trials and assess the benefits and risks associated with a...
Drug Elimination: Non-Renal Routes01:23

Drug Elimination: Non-Renal Routes

The liver plays a pivotal role in eliminating drugs and their metabolites, primarily through a process known as biliary excretion. This process involves the hepatocytes, the primary cells in the liver that generate bile. A range of transporters actively expels polar drugs or hydrophilic drug metabolites into the bile, which transports the drugs and metabolites into the small intestine. From here, they are eventually expelled from the body through feces. In some instances, the original drug or a...
Enhanced Elimination of Poison01:26

Enhanced Elimination of Poison

Poison can be effectively removed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract through various decontamination procedures.
Antidotes serve a crucial role in counteracting the effects of poison by inhibiting enzymes responsible for producing harmful drug metabolites. In some cases, these toxic metabolites can be neutralized by endogenous cosubstrates, which are maintained at specific concentrations to prevent interaction with cellular macromolecules and subsequent cell death.
Renal excretion is the...

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Color Spot Test As a Presumptive Tool for the Rapid Detection of Synthetic Cathinones
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Published on: February 5, 2018

Illicit drugs in the environment.

Ettore Zuccato1, Sara Castiglioni

  • 1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, , Via La Masa 19, 20156 Milan, Italy.

Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences
|September 9, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Illicit drugs are found in wastewater and surface waters, posing potential risks to aquatic life and human health. Monitoring these drug residues offers a real-time method for estimating population drug consumption.

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Published on: August 1, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Science
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Toxicology

Background:

  • Illicit drugs are increasingly detected in wastewater and surface waters.
  • Consumption leads to continuous discharge of drugs and metabolites into domestic wastewaters.
  • Substantial drug residues reach sewage treatment plants (STPs), with incomplete degradation and release into the environment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the current knowledge on illicit drugs as emerging environmental contaminants.
  • To assess the potential risks associated with illicit drug residues in aquatic ecosystems.
  • To explore the use of wastewater analysis for estimating population-level drug consumption.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing scientific literature on illicit drug detection in environmental matrices.
  • Analysis of drug excretion patterns and their fate in sewage treatment processes.
  • Evaluation of wastewater-based epidemiology as a tool for drug abuse monitoring.

Main Results:

  • Illicit drugs, including morphine, cocaine, and methamphetamine, are present in STPs and surface waters.
  • Environmental concentrations, though low, may pose risks due to the pharmacological potency of these substances.
  • Wastewater analysis provides a real-time, evidence-based approach to estimate drug consumption, potentially overcoming limitations of traditional epidemiological methods.

Conclusions:

  • Illicit drugs represent a significant emerging environmental contaminant class.
  • The presence of potent psychoactive substances in aquatic environments warrants further investigation into ecological and human health impacts.
  • Wastewater-based drug monitoring offers a valuable tool for public health surveillance and understanding drug abuse patterns.