During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of Australia’s biggest cities, Melbourne, experienced three major isolation (“lockdown”) periods in 2020 (160 days) and in 2021 (111 days) which makes it one of the most locked down cities world-wide. This study assessed how the pandemic affected temporal trends in methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine consumption using wastewater-based epidemiology. Daily samples were collected for most of 2020 and 2021 (n = 660 days). Concentrations were measured using direct-injection LC-MS/MS and back-calculated to consumption estimates. Results indicate that methamphetamine use was increasing before the first lockdown and decreased after the end of the first lockdown in 2020. Methamphetamine trends appeared to have remained steady throughout the second lockdown period before increasing steeply after it ended. For most of 2020, cocaine use remained steady, with an increase after the second lockdown. MDMA use decreased after the start of the first lockdown and remained steady throughout most of 2020 and 2021. In comparison to 2020, trends in 2021 were less variable and stimulant use did not appear to be as associated with COVID-19 restrictions. Overall, this study was able to show the impact of lockdown periods and the related social restrictions on illicit stimulant use.

中文翻译：

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使用废水分析评估澳大利亚墨尔本 COVID-19 大流行期间兴奋剂的日常使用模式


在 COVID-19 大流行期间，澳大利亚最大的城市之一墨尔本经历了 2020 年（160 天）和 2021 年（111 天）三个主要的隔离（“封锁”）期，这使其成为世界上封锁最严重的城市之一 -宽的。这项研究利用基于废水的流行病学评估了大流行如何影响甲基苯丙胺、摇头丸和可卡因消费的时间趋势。 2020 年和 2021 年的大部分时间（n = 660 天）每天收集样本。使用直接注射 LC-MS/MS 测量浓度并反算消耗量估计值。结果表明，甲基苯丙胺的使用量在第一次封锁之前有所增加，并在 2020 年第一次封锁结束后下降。在第二次封锁期间，甲基苯丙胺的趋势似乎保持稳定，但在结束后急剧增加。 2020 年的大部分时间里，可卡因使用量保持稳定，第二次封锁后有所增加。第一次封锁开始后，摇头丸的使用量有所下降，并在 2020 年和 2021 年的大部分时间里保持稳定。与 2020 年相比，2021 年的趋势变化较小，兴奋剂的使用似乎与 COVID-19 限制无关。总体而言，这项研究能够显示封锁期和相关社会限制对非法兴奋剂使用的影响。