Just Say No To Drugs…In Your Drinking Water

In fifth grade, I vowed to say No to Drugs. More correctly, I was forced to say “No”, or I would not be allowed to walk the stage at fifth grade graduation (which would have been social suicide).

So I did, and my little, naive fifth grade self truly believed that I would never take a shot of tequila, smoke a joint and I was absolutely never going to eat a fungus that grows on cow sh!@#t. Ever.

Let’s just say, without giving too much away, that my fifth grade self would probably be a little disappointed in my 21-year old self. Woops!

However, up until this point, whatever drugs I did choose to poison and/or pleasure my body with (depending on how you look at the situation), I always thought I had full control of when/where/how they were getting in my system. I was wrong.

An Associated Press investigation that spanned a five-month period found that 24 major metropolitan areas have drugs in their drinking water. Yes, the stuff that everyone claims is safe to drink and/or at least okay to use to wash our hands and rinse our mouths with after brushing. Well, it’s also teeming with a large range of prescribed and over-the-counter drugs – from sex hormones in San Fran to over 56 different types of pharmaceuticals and their byproducts in Philly.

Disgusted yet? It gets worse.

As we all know, the water in our toilet bowls doesn’t just magically appear. It’s the same water that was in our toilet bowls years ago and will be the same water years from now – treated, yes, but still the same water, in essence. We all also know that when you take your meds, your body absorbs part of it and the other part, well, comes out of you. Into that toilet bowl. And back into your drinking water.

But what does this really mean?

Researchers say there are too many unknowns to make any kind of real judgment about the issue.

However, most scientists are worried that over time, the drugs, or at least a combination of several drugs, could cause some damage – especially because humans can – and need to – drink a good amount of water everyday.

An article at CNN.com says that our bodies “may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage.” Just great!

I don’t know about you – but this scares the sh!@#t out of me. I’m open to experimentation – really! – but I’d rather be the one to decide exactly what kind of drugs I’m ingesting, thankyouverymuch.

What do you guys think? Isn’t this a little freaky?