Researchers have come up with an idea of giving an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city’s sewer plant. Although single drug user can not be pin pointed, it however will help the authorities with tracking the spread of dangerous drugs in a community.

Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking.

“It’s a community urinalysis,” said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team. The scientists presented their results Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

Further details on the test can be read in this news article.