Music festival drugs contaminating local water supplies

Large scale music festivals are notorious for drug abuse. According to Digital Music News, a new environmental impact study shows that drugs like ecstasy, ketamine and others used at music festivals have been contaminating local water supplies.

The study, published by Environmental Science & Technology, looked at “emerging contaminants” in the water supply. “The researchers quickly found that large festivals are flooding local waterways with certain contaminants, specifically large amounts of ketamine, MDMA, and caffeine,” DMN reports.

The study cites an “extraordinary increase” in the drug MDMA during a youth festival. Looking at the Spring Scream pop festival, researchers were able to calculate the average amount of drugs excreted by attendees to be .56 mg.

Authors of the study could not predict any long-term impacts on drinking water.

Last year, organizers of the Electric Zoo festival broadcasted this anti-drug video to their attendees:

Photo via Wikimedia Commons