
Scientists Find Cocaine in Shrimps - pseudolus
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-48117678
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jcoffland
> The potential for any effect on the creatures was "likely to be low", they
> said.

Typical popsci article. A clickbaity title followed by a hint at the
disappointing truth far enough down the page that 95% of readers never see it.

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tzs
I think you missed the point, which is that cocaine wasn't expected there at
all. Its presence indicates that there is some way for it to get into the
environment that was not anticipated.

It means that now we need to figure out how it gets there, and whether or not
that is a problem, and if it is how to stop it. Just because it is probably
not a problem for the shrimp doesn't mean it is not a problem, because it is
unlikely that whatever is releasing it into the environment does so in a way
that only reaches shrimp.

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toomuchtodo
It’s most likely from waste water treatment plant effluent discharged into the
rivers (or upstream) in question. Those plants are typically not capable of
breaking down pharmaceutical and recreational drugs, nor artificially produced
hormones (such as that found in birth control pills).

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gus_massa
The dose makes the poison.

They are probably using a very sensitive detector. If they try the same
analysis in a person that never took cocaine, would they detect the cocaine
absorbed from the cash and other tiny amounts in shared objects?

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vanderZwan
> _The dose makes the poison._

Sure, but what is the effective dose for shrimp? As the article says: more
research is needed.

I do recall a similar article about Prozac in American rivers, and there it
was shown to be enough to affect the local wildlife.

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gus_massa
[IANAB] Get the minimal dose for humans or rats and reduce it linearly to the
weight of the shrimps. Perhaps it's better to use the concentration of cocaine
in the human brain instead of the total dose divided by the total weigh.
(Shrimps don't have bones, is that important?, IANAB)

The neurotransmisors are more similar in all animals than expected, so I guess
a similar concentration in the brain is a good assumption. 1/1000 of the human
concentration is probably safe for shrimps.

An alternative is to study it in the lab. Get a few shrimps and get them high.
How hard can it be?

My guess is that this study is more useful for the police to get a general map
of drug use than to see if shrimps are in danger. I guess that the shrimps
concentrate the drugs, so it's easy to collect some water and filter the
shrimps and put them in a blender, than collecting a bigger sample of water
and concentrating it.

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stunt
Disappointing! Even the BBC is doing clickbaity titles!

I'm sure this is not the first title that comes to your mind if you are
writing this article.

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dfischer
> Other illicit drugs, such as ketamine, were also widespread in the shrimp.

Interesting on the widespread aspects here.

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ivoras
Yeah, the drug prohibition isn't exactly working out.

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Applejinx
Presumably, mantis shrimps :)

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ionwake
I’m thinking the lab tech or field researcher most probably accidentally
contaminated the samples

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m463
I think of the criminal case years and years ago where someone was arrested
with a large sum of cash, and they asserted it was drug money because cocaine
was found on the bills.

The defending lawyer just took a random sample of money from circulation and
found the same thing.

[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-
xpm-1994-11-13-me-62172-...](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-
xpm-1994-11-13-me-62172-story.html)

and if you look further, even ATMs get in on the game, by spreading it on
other bills that pass through the mechanisms:

[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cocaine-on-
money/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cocaine-on-money/)

So by the same token, I wonder how many ways the samples can be contaminated,
the obvious one being someone touches money first.

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csense
I guess now I know why I like shrimp so much (/s)

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pseudolus
Anyone who's seen Disney's "The Little Mermaid" won't be surprised.
Crustaceans love to party.

~~~
waplot
Darling it's better, Down where it's wetter, Take it from me ;)

