The distribution of consumed cocaine in the Brazilian Federal District (FD) was estimated using the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach. Sewage samples from eight wastewater treatment plants were analyzed for cocaine (COC) and benzoylecgonine (BE) using solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The highest per capita consumption was noticed for the northern area of the Brazilian Capital (1162 mg day-1 1000 inh-1) being 32% higher than the average consumption rate of the investigated region. In this area, a day-to-day investigation revealed an average cocaine consumption of 1800 mg day-1 1000 inh-1 during the weekend, i.e., more than 50% higher than weekdays. An annual street-grade cocaine load of about 2 ton was estimated for the FD considering previous information on the actual purity of seized street drugs as well as consumers between 15 and 64 years old. Sample preservation strategies were also investigated in order to expand the WBE approach to other Brazilian areas. Sample acidification to pH 2.0 presented the smallest relative errors for COC (+11%) and BE (−4%) after a period of three days under typical transport conditions practiced by the Brazilian national postal service.

A multiresidue method was developed to estimate community drug use during two weekends of the 2014 Soccer World Cup via wastewater analyses. Five of the 16 investigated substances were detected in all eight samples. Benzoilecgonine (BE), the major cocaine metabolite, was the most abundant substance (1.9 ± 0.3 to 4.2 ± 0.2 μg L-1) followed by anhydroecgonine (AE) (1.5 ± 0.2 to 2.6 ± 0.2 μg L-1), phenacetin (PHE) (0.62 ± 0.06 to 1.3 ± 0.1 μg L-1), levamisole (LEV) (0.5 ± 0.2 to 1.23 ± 0.09 μg L-1), and cocaine (COC) (0.46 ± 0.07 to 0.8 ± 0.1 μg L-1). COC and BE levels suggested a human consumption origin for the investigated drugs. AE/BE ratios revealed a significant use of smoked crack/free base cocaine. Relationships between the adulterants PHE and LEV evidenced a higher use of crack cocaine in the South-Wing WWTP region. An estimative for cocaine use revealed slightly higher drug consumption during the Soccer World Cup weekends in comparison with a typical weekend in 2012.