Researcher says ‘alarming’ amount of meth found in Shreveport’s wastewater

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SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - A stunning discovery has been made in the City of Shreveport’s wastewater: large amounts of methamphetamine.

Several experts claim it could be linked to a major part of Shreveport’s drug problem.

LSU Shreveport Health Science’s Louisiana Addiction Research Center has been working on the research for about a year.

”We found that meth levels in the wastewater in Shreveport were two times the levels found anywhere else that have been reported. We think that this is important, and it seems like our biggest drug problem in Caddo Parish is meth and we need to focus on that,” said Dr. Nicholas Goeders, PhD, professor & chairman of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Neuroscience.

Goeders said he’s also concerned about the environmental impact the meth could have.

“We have to think about what are the environmental effects of this. We’re only measuring what is used in Shreveport that goes down into the sewer system. But think about the rural communities, they use septic tanks and the purified water they have is sprayed onto their lawns after it’s finished in the septic tank. I don’t know how much meth is out there. It could be that it’s getting into the soil, it could be getting into our lakes,” he said.

Goeders said the research center will continue monitoring meth levels in Shreveport’s wastewater. The center also hopes to expand their efforts in Shreveport to other parishes.

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