STUDENTS DRUG STAGGERS : GLOBAL ESSAY

IN A study on cocaine-fueled salmon - the evidence came in a real, real hurry.

In recent years, there has been alarming rise in the number of waterways polluted with cocaine, prompting scientists to wonder how fish might be handling their highs.

A study led by Jack Brand, an environmental toxicologist in Sweden shows that coked-up salmon swim faster and travel farther than their sober counterparts. This study prompts additional questions about the  effects that human drug habits may be having on salmon and other freshwater fish.

Countless studies have looked at how fish and other animals respond to cocaine in a laboratory setting. But none had studied the impact of the drug in the real world.

Dr. Brand's team implanted dozens of 2-year-old fish with tracking tags and slow release capsules.

Some capsules contained cocaine, while others had a compound that is used as a signature in drug tests,  benzoylecgonine.

The fish were then released into Vattern, a lake in Sweden.

The researchers were not surprised to see that the hopped-up salmon swam more than the unaltered fish.

What was unexpected was that the salmon receiving doses of the cocaine byproduct benzoylecgonine had an even more unnatural pep in their step, swimming nearly twice as far per week than the straightedge salmon had been released alongside them.

'' Our results suggest that risk assessments focusing only on cocaine may underestimate the ecological effects of its breakdown products,'' said Tomas Brodin, a university colleague of Dr. Brand and a co-author of the study.

Cocaine and Benzoylecgonine are just a few of the chemical pollutants that make their way into aquatic ecosystems as a result of the production of drugs.

!WOW! thanks Annie Roth.