Eight Scottish sites contributed to the published August 2024–July 2025 evidence. Home Office funding for Scottish sites was withdrawn in late 2025, and the Scottish Government confirmed in August 2026 that no illicit-drug wastewater monitoring was currently operational in Scotland.
Home Office WAND · experimental statistics
Wastewater analysis
Estimated consumption gives a different view from surveys, treatment and policing: it measures drug residues across sampled wastewater systems.
Published England sample42 sites28% of the population
Historical Scotland coverage46%Population covered in published phase 3
Published phase 350 sitesAcross England and Scotland
Published programme scope28Substances, including 22 synthetic opioids
Northern Ireland was not included in the Home Office WAND programme. No comparable official public wastewater dataset on illicit-drug consumption was located, so no Northern Ireland estimate is presented.
National estimates
Estimated annual consumption in England
Purity-adjusted central estimates · August 2024 to July 2025
Trend signal
Change from 2021 to 2025
Comparable 16-site trend series covering 18% of England
Cocaine+26%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
Amphetamine-27%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
Ketamine+229%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
MDMA+232%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
Heroin-40%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
Methamphetamine+61%January–April 2021 compared with January–April 2025
02
Geographical pattern
Areas repeatedly identified as higher or lower within sampled WAND locations
England and Scotland
Reported high and low consumption signals
August 2024 to July 2025 · not a complete regional league table
CocaineNorth East (site), North West (site), ScotlandYorkshire and the Humber
KetamineEast of England (site), North West (site), South East, South West (site)East Midlands, West Midlands, Scotland
HeroinScotland, West Midlands, East of EnglandLow estimates cannot be interpreted because 6-MAM is unstable
AmphetamineNorth West, East of EnglandSouth East (site), Yorkshire and the Humber
MDMALondon, North West (site), South East (site), South WestNorth East
MethamphetamineEast of England (site), London, North West (site), South East (site), South West, West Midlands (site), Yorkshire and the Humber (site)Rural areas and small cities
Site qualifier
“(site)” means one sampled treatment plant showed the pattern. An unqualified region means several sites showed it consistently. Urban areas were more prominent for cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine.
03
Weekly pattern and method
What the signal can show — and what it cannot
MDMA and cocaine
Higher estimated consumption at weekends and lower levels on weekdays. MDMA has a Monday–Tuesday tail because excretion can take one to two days.
Ketamine, amphetamine and methamphetamine
These substances showed a steadier weekly pattern, which can support monitoring of more regular consumption.
Heroin
The 6-MAM biomarker is unstable, so low estimates and day-to-day patterns require particular caution.
Seven-day windows
Each site provides 24-hour composite samples for seven consecutive days, asynchronously once every two months.
Take 24-hour composite samples at wastewater treatment plants.
Test for drugs and human metabolites such as benzoylecgonine and norketamine.
Adjust for flow, metabolism, deposition and retail purity.
Extrapolate England estimates with uncertainty intervals; Scotland is not nationally extrapolated.
Experimental
Use with care
Open WAND collection ↗WAND cannot identify how many people used a drug, who used it, individual purity, or whether every detected amount was consumed. Cannabis is not measured. Limited nitazene detection does not demonstrate absence of use. Wales and Northern Ireland were outside this programme, and national extrapolation currently applies to England only.