What Happens When You Give Cocaine To Salmon? A Biologist Explains

InnovationScienceWhat Happens When You Give Cocaine To Salmon? A Biologist ExplainsByScott Travers,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world.Follow AuthorMay 30, 2026, 08:30am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.What happens when cocaine makes its way into rivers and lakes? Scientists tested the answer on wild salmon in Sweden. Here’s what they found.gettyYou’d probably never expect those words to form a meaningful sentence — let alone appear in the context of real, peer-reviewed biological research. But they did. In an April 2026 study published in Current Biology, researchers conducted one of the strangest-sounding ecological experiments imaginable: testing the effects of cocaine pollution on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Sweden. It sounds absurd. But from a biologist’s perspective, it’s a phenomenal piece of research that, hopefully, will shed light on yet another unexpected way human activity is severely impacting the ecosystems. Here’s what the researchers actually tested, why they did it, and what it could mean for salmon populations around the world.What Is ‘Cocaine Pollution’?Cocaine pollution isn’t what it sounds like. Most take the phrase at face value: they assume drug dealers are dumping their products into rivers and lakes and, in turn, contaminating the water. While this probably does happen occasionally, that’s not what researchers mean when they use the term.In actuality, the term refers to the trace levels of cocaine and its breakdown products that exist in waterways. The caveat, however, is that it’s not directly from the drug entering the water itself, but via sewage systemsWhen humans do cocaine, the body metabolizes it incredibly quickly in the liver. The main byproduct of this process is a compound known as benzoylecgonine — the exact compound that...