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Shock over cocaine river residues
 YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- Scientists say they have been surprised by the discovery of large amounts of cocaine residue in an Italian river. The findings suggest that about 40,000 doses of cocaine are consumed every day in the Po valley -- many times more than was previously thought, the survey revealed Friday. According to official figures, 1.1 percent of Italian adults aged 15 to 34 admit to having used cocaine at least once in the past month. The official figures imply that the drug is taken about 15,000 times a month among the 1.4 million young adults living around the Po. But those estimates, based on population surveys, medical records and crime statistics, are greatly at odds with new evidence from a chemical in the urine of cocaine users. Benzoylecgonine, or BE, is a by-product of cocaine metabolism and cannot be produced by any other means. Through the urine, it finds its way into the sewerage system and rivers. The Italian researchers, led by Dr Ettore Zuccato, from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, measured levels of BE in the Po. They expected their findings broadly to mirror national estimates. But to their surprise they found that the river carried the equivalent of four kilograms of cocaine every day. "We ... found evidence of about 40,000 doses per day, a vastly larger estimate," the scientists wrote in the British journal Environmental Health. "The economic impact of trafficking such a large amount of cocaine would be staggering. "The large amount of cocaine (at least 1,500 kilograms/3,307lb) that our findings suggest are consumed per year in the River Po basin would amount, in fact, to about $150 million U.S. in street value." For every 1,000 young adults aged 15 to 34, at least 27 doses of 100 m.g. (0.004oz) of cocaine would have to be taken per day to produce so much BE, said the researchers. They found that the Po valley was not alone in having a cocaine problem. Tests on sewage water from a number of medium-sized Italian cities revealed a similar pattern. The researchers said their findings demonstrated that new methods are needed to assess the true number of illegal drug users. Although the new test for BE looked promising, it had to be "refined and validated" before being brought into general use, they added. 
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