My PhD project aims to improve the quality and integration of population-level data for monitoring the consumption of both licit and illicit opioids in Queensland communities. The analysis of opioids in wastewater, integrated with opioid use information such as prescription and seizure statistics will vastly increase understanding of opioid consumption patterns. By analysing wastewater samples from 2011 and triangulating them with other datasets, the expected outcomes include building the capacity to estimate consumption of all opioids and detecting the misuse of licit and illicit opioids over time to provide evidence of opioid use patterns. Furthermore, my PhD will involve triangulating data to elucidate the drivers of use, utilising wastewater data, regulatory prescription data, and law enforcement data to understand how user demographics and market profiles affect the use of illicit substances. Data will be able to reliably estimate the use of illegal prescription opioids, a major cause of morbidity and mortality driving the U.S. opioid crisis. Finally, I will also be evaluating the effectiveness of different drug control interventions, such as changes in prescription practice, drug seizures, or education campaigns, by assessing the levels of substance use pre- and post-intervention.
