Intoxicating yourself is detrimental enough. Not only does it affect you in the short term high, but your long term health. If serious enough, your relationships with friends and family and school or work performance may be impacted as well. Legal amphetamines, such as dexamphetamine, are manufactured under pharmaceutical companies specifically for the treatment of disease such as ADHD or narcolepsy. However, just like most drugs, it is often exploited for its recreational high. Illegal amphetamines are created in secret laboratories and are diluted with various fillers in order to increase profits. Consequently, the person ingesting or inhaling the drug has no knowledge of the drug’s side effects and power, or whether it contains dangerous fillers such as talcum powder or quinine. When we think of drugs, though, the ecosystem often doesn’t come to mind.
In the day of widespread illegal use of amphetamines, not only is the human race being brought down, but our environment as well. The selfish and careless acts of humans are causing aquatic wildlife in Baltimore rivers to be exposed to the drugs, and large consequences follow. Plants such as moss, and animals such as fish are being disturbed. Growth and development of the stream organisms are being altered, which could have serious long term effects.
In an experiment ran by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the definite effects were identified. The slippery surface you find on rocks at the bottom of streams had been affected. The substance is technically thousands of tiny organisms, which form the biofilm. After the exposure to the drugs, their growth was suppressed. Natural stream bacterial life had been found to be significantly altered. Even scarier, insects which had depended on the stream as a source of life had been found to develop much quicker, and in some cases, become larger as well.
Looking ahead, the drugs possess the potential to change the overall structure of the ecosystem and function of the stream, as well as any land roaming organisms which depend upon it. This is because of the fact that the plants and bugs are the primary producers and predators, it means that the poison within their bodies will be passed on to any animal which feeds off of it in the future, and while this may be an extremely miniscule amount, if the issue becomes large enough, it could become an ever larger issue than what we see now.
The issue could be caused by many factors, but Rosi-Marshall, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, theorizes “They are likely coming down through leaks in the sewer. It also has been shown that the drugs can be released from wastewater treatment plants that are not necessarily designed to remove these compounds.” Simply put, flushing your drugs isn’t the most effective system of removal for our earth. Efforts are in place in order to encourage safe disposal methods, such as the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. However, Rosi-Marshall argues that “We need to invest in maintaining and repairing our aging underground water infrastructure and potentially develop new technology.”
Not only are drugs harmful to humans, but as time passes we see an overall effect on our world. I guess this could be constituted to the theory which states that all energy is recycled throughout earth, but in my opinion, we could use more positive energy to save our earth, and do future generations a huge favor.
