Study: Cocaine Pollution Alters Wild Fish Behavior, Causing Increased Wandering in Brown Trout

Long after the high is gone, illegal drugs linger in the environment. Cocaine and its breakdown products, for example, are found in rivers and lakes worldwide.

And like children living with secondhand smoke, wildlife in polluted waters—including tiny crustaceans, fish, and even sharks—can’t help but take up these drugs.

Now, a research team has conducted the first study of how drugs affect behavior of fish in the wild adds to concerns about chemical exposure.

In laboratory studies, water fleas exposed to cocaine swim faster and crayfish will venture behind their hiding places, a risky behavior in nature.