Police officers in Tennessee asked locals over the weekend to stop flushing their drugs down their toilets, citing that it was turning alligators into “meth-gators.”

The plea came after officers witnessed a suspect trying to flush methamphetamine down a lavatory. According to a CNN report, the Loretto Police Department has warned local residents of the consequences of such actions, saying that it could potentially create “methed up animals.” 

Police shared the warning via their social media, saying “Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek, but they are not really prepared for meth. Ducks, geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough that we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They’ve had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help.”

Scientists believe that these drugs could be negatively affecting animal populations. Several studies published in a 2014 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B examined how contamination of the environment due to pharmaceuticals could be impacting wildlife. Some fish have shown to be affected by traces of birth control pills, and the feeding habits of some birds have changed after exposure to a common antidepressant.

A group of researchers has recently found traces of cocaine, ketamine, tramadol, and opioid medication in shrimp from the U.K., publishing their findings in Environment International. The team believes that these illegal substances found their way into the shrimp population via sewer leakage.

Thomas Miller, lead author of the study said, ‘Although concentrations were low, we were able to identify compounds that might be of concern to the environment and crucially, which might pose a risk to wildlife.”