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Illicit Drugs and the Environment
Citation:
DAUGHTON, C. G. Illicit Drugs and the Environment. Chapter 1, S. Catiglioni, E. Zuccato & R. Fanelli (ed.), Illicit Drugs in the Environment: Occurrence, Analysis, and Fate, Using Mass Spectrometry. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ, , 3-27, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
Any discussion regarding illicit drugs can be complicated by the ambiguity as to what exactly defines an illicit drug. Confusion stems from the fact that illicit drugs are not necessarily illegal. Many are licit pharmaceuticals having valuable therapeutic uses - two common examples being morphine and oxycodone. Instead, whether a drug is "illicit" is defined by international convention or national law, not necessarily by any inherent property of the drug. Some discussion is essential to better understand the scope of drug substances that can be considered "illicit"
Description:
Beginning in the 1970s, the range of chemicals recognized as contributing to widespread contamination of the environment began to be extended to pharmaceuticals, with the topic beginning to attract broader scientific attention around the mid-1990s (Daughton 2009a). Occurring generally at levels below 1 microgram per liter (1 part per billion), the near ubiquitous presence of pharmaceuticals in a wide variety of environmental compartments serves as a stunning measure of advancements in analytical chemistry and of our understanding of the scope of environmental pollution.
URLs/Downloads:
Illicit Drugs and the Environment
DAUGHTON 09-137 FINAL BOOK CHAPTER ILLICIT DRUGS AND THE ENVIRONMENT - REVISED FINAL (22MAR10).PDF (PDF, NA pp, 168 KB, about PDF)