Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jun 2005
Source: Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
Copyright: Mail & Guardian, 2005
Contact:  http://www.mg.co.za/mg/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/254
Author: Marianne Merten
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

SPOTLIGHT ON NEW HIGH

Victor Greene* has stopped replacing the rear brake light bulbs of 
his ageing car as youngsters from his working-class suburb in 
southern Cape Town kept on stealing them to smoke tik, the latest 
drug being consumed by the city's youth. "If they can get it [the 
light bulb] for free, they can save some rands for tik," he shrugs.

It costs between R20 and R40 for a hit of tik (methamphetamine) 
packaged in a drinking straw. The drug is emptied into a light bulb, 
from which the metal thread is removed, heated with a lighter and 
smoked through the straw. The "tick-tick" sound the drug makes as it 
is smoked, gave it its name.

Eighteen months ago, tik hardly featured in the Cape. Only 2% of 
those seeking treatment for addiction cited it. But, in May this 
year, it emerged that tik was the primary drug choice of 29% of 
patients overall and 42% of patients under 20, according to a report 
by the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (Sacendu).

The report found that younger people used tik more than any other 
drug except dagga -- more than half the patients are aged between 15 
and 19 -- about 40% of users smoked it daily, another 35% at least 
twice a week. It was the largest and fastest increase in patients 
ever noted, warns Sacendu, which monitors treatment centres 
countrywide, including 28 in Cape Town.

"No other drug in South Africa has done anything like that in such a 
short time. In Cape Town, anyway, tik has raced past anything else," 
says Andreas Plüddemann, senior scientist at the Medical Research 
Council's alcohol and substance abuse research unit. "It's, 
unfortunately, the most serious drug problem that we face in Cape 
Town and surroundings."

Tik triggers feelings of euphoria, confidence and energy and is 
promoted by drug merchants as a weight-loss agent ­ all factors 
playing on the insecurities and lack of confidence among teenagers 
undergoing emotional and psychological changes. But, after the 
euphoria wears off, users suffer uncontrollable rage, insomnia, and 
psychotic incidents such as hallucinations and strokes.

About 700 tik addicts are currently undergoing treatment in Cape Town 
but of those 700 it is estimated that 200 continue to abuse the 
narcotic. In contrast, only seven cases have been reported in Gauteng 
and a handful in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga.

Experts say that adding to the drug's popularity is the confluence of 
the existing drug networks linked to the powerful Cape gang culture 
and the pre-existing widespread custom of smoking Mandrax from a bottle neck.

The link between the drug and gang cultures has recently come under 
closer scrutiny after several deadly shootings and the petrol-bombing 
of alleged "tik houses" in Manenberg and Mitchells Plain. But it was 
in the plush northern Cape suburb of Plattekloof that police, in 
December, made their biggest bust: drugs valued at R4-million and 
chemicals to make about R72-million worth of the drug were seized at 
a tik factory.

In April police stepped up anti-drug raids as part of the "Toxic 
Algae" operation. Western Cape police failed to respond to requests 
for details on arrests and seizures and the operation's future is 
under discussion.

A year after the Western Cape government announced a crackdown on tik 
it appears that the focus on drug bosses is giving way to a broader 
assault involving most departments. Provincial Minister of Community 
Safety Leonard Ramatlakane said aware-ness campaigns at schools and 
training of community anti-crime workers will be stepped up and more 
money is to be spent on rehabilitation centres.

Calls have also been made for the regulation of sales and 
distribution of tik base chemicals such as red phosphorous, anhydrous 
ammonia and pseudoephedrine. Once the chemicals are obtained, tik can 
be cooked up in an ordinary kitchen, which is cause for concern since 
the disposal of waste products remains a hazard.

Although tik appears to be largely restricted to the Cape, experts at 
Sacendu have warned that steps must be taken to prevent its spread.

Recently the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre contacted treatment 
facilities elsewhere in the country to advise on symptoms and 
treatment methods.

Centre director Grant Jardine says outpatient treatment has been 
successful, although the initial detox period requires medical 
supervision. About 55% of former tik addicts remained drug free six 
months after completing their rehabilitation programme.

But Jardine cautions that the number of tik addicts seeking help 
remains high. In 2003 it was the primary drug of less than 5% of the 
centre's clients, in April this year that figure leapt to 36%. "For 
20 years, since 1985 [when the centre opened], dagga and Mandrax were 
the top two drugs, until last year, when it was tik and heroin," says Jardine.

* Not his real name 
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MAP posted-by: Beth