Banning open carry wasn’t the only provision in New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s health order made on September 8th, 2023. This health order also directed the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) to begin testing the wastewater of Albuquerque metro schools for a series of drugs; including Cocaine, Heroin, and Fentanyl. 

Now, here’s the stats. Of 24 schools tested in the metro, zero tested positive for heroin or its Metabolite, the substance produced when the body metabolizes substances. For fentanyl only nine of 38 schools tested positive. Finally, for cocaine 31 of 38 schools tested positive.

When we narrow our focus to Cibola we see that Cibola only tested positive for seven of the 15 substances tested by the DOH. The positives identified were Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Codeine, and Morphine in the opioid category and Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, and Benzoylecgonine in the stimulant category.

What does this mean for Cibola? Well not much currently, though it does provide community leaders with valuable information to help combat dangerous drugs in our community. These results come with one major issue, as stated directly from the Governor’s website:  “Wastewater testing for opioids and other drugs is a developing field…there are several knowledge gaps that limit data interpretation. Specifically, the results do not tell us how many people used the drug, the amount of drug that was consumed, or if the use was illicit.”

All data from the Governor’s office can be found here.