Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 Source: Daily Nation (Kenya) Copyright: 2002 Nation Newspapers Contact: (254-2)213946 Website: http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/868 Author: Dennis Onyango NEW DRUG CONCOCTIONS SPELL DOOM For many years, Kenyans and their Government left the issue of drugs to the anti-narcotics police unit, which focused more on cracking down on trafficking and use of cocaine, heroin, mandrax and hashish, these being mostly substances on the United Nation's list of illicit drugs. The small-time, mostly local but equally addictive and deadly drugs, the most common of which are cannabis sativa and miraa, were largely ignored. Now, a year after the Government formed the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), the organisation says it has established in the surveys it has conducted around the country that Kenya is a nation deeply under the influence of drugs. About a year since its inception, Nacada officials have visited seven of the country's eight provinces to assess the extent of drug abuse, and held talks with the Prisons authorities, administrators, spiritual leaders and teachers. Nacada co-ordinator and former Nairobi Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi says the agency has established that alcohol, tobacco, bhang, miraa (khat) and some concoctions never seen before, and some of which have come from as far as India and Europe, are tearing the nation apart. Up to 92 per cent of children aged between 16 and 26 are reported to have experimented with drugs. More than half of these stop using the drugs after some time, but 25 per cent continue abusing the substances. About 20 per cent of these young people, the report says, end up getting addicted. Children start trying drugs "Alcohol and tobacco are opening doors for children to start trying drugs. The age at which children now access the narcotic drugs has become lower," Mr Kaguthi, said in an interview with the Sunday Nation in Nairobi. "The age 18 rule is now being flouted," he laments. Most parents and teachers, though aware of the danger drug abuse poses to youth, do not know and would not even recognise what the young people who abuse these substances take. Some of the most abused drugs are multiple concoctions of several chemicals, powders and shrubs that have a higher capacity to make users feel "high" as they rush to their ruin. In some areas, young people have now taken to using herbs that were traditionally consumed only by very old people and even then, on very special occasions. But alcohol and tobacco are "mere initiators" into what in a large number of cases, ends up being a complex drugs world from which the young people can never escape, however hard they try, until some of them die aged only around 20. Bhang (cannabis), which is more common and worries many parents and teachers in the towns and the rural areas, is not even the big one in the league of drugs the young people abuse today. It is, in fact, treated by some of the young addicts as "an escort" for harder substances. In many cases, people will graduate from using tobacco and alcohol to smoking cannabis, "which escorts them into the more weird world of stronger drugs like cocaine and heroin," Mr Kaguthi says. Miraa, which has become a big cash crop in parts of Eastern Province, where it grows naturally, comes fourth in the list of preferred intoxicants. The use of miraa in its traditional form has led to the rampant abuse of normal prescription drugs, it has been established in recent surveys. "People take miraa to stay alert. They will then have to look for tranquillisers when they are going to work," Mr Kaguthi says. Looks like a smaller problem North Eastern Province is the hardest hit by miraa abuse and subsequent abuse of prescription drugs. The abuse looks like a smaller problem. The miraa version the people, including teenagers in schools, now resort to is a stronger concoction which would make the leaves some people chew pale into nothing. Even in its traditional form, miraa is taking a heavy toll on the adults who use it, data collected by Nacada now shows. "Where miraa chewing has taken root, it is said, men have ceased to be men. And their productivity is very low." But the damage does not end at that personal level. Society suffers, too. "You take miraa, and then you take a depressant. Then you drive a motor vehicle. Just look at the strange road accidents that occur on our roads," Mr Kaguthi says. A concoction that comes in packets the size of tea bags is being sold to young people in various parts of the country, especially in Nairobi. And it is this that is consigning many to early ruin, but the authorities are yet to detect it for what it is and take serious steps to stop the manufacturers and peddlers. In the backstreet shops and makeshift kiosks, the substance sells as 'Abyssinia Tea' or simply as 'Special'. Its ingredients are bhang, miraa and tea leaves. A sachet sells at Sh30, but the impact on the consumer could be life-long. Then there is a small, glittering sachet of another concoction known as 'Scented Kuber', which is imported from India. The powdery substance sells mostly in Asian-owned shops and is reportedly popular with members of the Asian community. It weighs 10 grams and is dissolved into hot water or chewed. Scented Kuber is tobacco-based and schoolboys buy it to get "high". A sachet costs Sh20. The Scented Kuber smell can be too strong to be missed. It, therefore, comes with another product, for young people who want to use it and avoid detection. Some of the children abusing this substance will buy something known as 'Tulsi Mix Gutkha' and consume it to kill the Kuber's smell. Both come in small sachets and, according to Mr Kaguthi, schoolchildren hide the offending matter in their school mathematical sets. The promotional advert on the Gutkha sachets says the concoction gives "more power, more taste." To try out these concoctions A warning on the Kuber sachets say it is "best used before six months." But it does not have the date of manufacture. The use of tobacco-based intoxicants is increasing by the day. When young people are not taking the usual tobacco, those, especially from Eastern Province, are said to resort to taking a local discovery called the 'Mbeere brand' of cigarettes. This brand comprises tobacco and bhang rolled together in Rizla papers and sold in a sachet. It has taken a heavy toll on schoolchildren in areas where it is consumed. The Nacada data indicate that where the Mbeere brand and Abyssinia Tea are popular, such as in Central and Eastern provinces, more boys than girls drop out of school. Boys are more likely than girls to try out these concoctions. Miraa's popularity points to how low things have sunk since independence, nearly four decades ago. In the colonial times, according to Nacada's field survey findings, the Local Native Council of Embu banned miraa chewing. And in the whole of the North Eastern Province, only three Somalis were allowed to chew the plant. In the towns, especially Nairobi, glue-sniffing has become so commonplace, with almost every street boy holding a bottle close to his nostrils, that many people no longer see it as a problem. Yet it has devastating effects on the consumers. Of the popular drugs in circulation, glue-sniffing is most certain to cause death. Dr Bilha Hagembe, the medical adviser at the Nacada headquarters in Nairobi, says glue has affinity to fat. It dissolves mylen, a bodily fat that is the medium through which nerve impulses work. Glue will wash away mylen in a process called demylenation. When the process is complete, life ends. To which, Mr Kaguthi adds: "Most street boys hooked on glue never live to be 20." Glue proceeds to kill the users' sense of smell. That is why street children can get to clean filthy toilets and even carry human waste. Dr Hagembe says: "Even the majority of health workers are ignorant of these facts." More portent combinations As more and more young people already hooked on easy-to-get drugs find less satisfaction in them after prolonged use, they resort to more portent combinations, according to a study by Prof David Ndetei, a psychiatrist who teaches at the University of Nairobi. About 8.9 per cent of the population reported using cannabis in its pure form, while about five per cent mix glue and petrol. Almost all the other drugs, including cocaine, heroine, and mandrax, are used combined with cannabis. "Women have demonstrated to oppose the ready availability of drugs and poisonous brews in their local areas. Each time the women stage a demonstration, they pass the message that the law-enforcement authorities are failing. I wonder why no action is taken," Mr Kaguthi said. According to Prof Ndetei, there is a tendency for gradual graduation from one type of drug to another or a combination of various types. Children of ages ranging from one to nine years report to be first- time users of alcohol, tobacco glue or petrol and cannabis. Between the ages of 10 and 15, they have tasted cocaine, mandrax, amphetamines and heroin, on top of the all the first ones. From the age 20, they are hooked on to every available drug with cannabis sativa being a permanent ingredient. Prof Ndetei says the trend is more common among boys than girls. It used to be more prevalent among the urban children but the gap between the rural and urban children is closing up when it comes to drug use. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom