COME election time next year, Jeremy Acton, leader of the Dagga Party, hopes to have his face printed on ballot papers along with those of the political bigwigs. Acton is working flat out to ensure that his party garners the 500 signatures required to contest the poll nationally. Currently he is 200 names short and does not have a cent in the kitty. Acton started the party after "listening to the herb". His conscience told him to speak up about the "lies" perpetuated about the plant. [continues 138 words]
PROGRESS towards a sensible drugs policy is glacially slow, but the latest report from the Home Affairs select committee on Britain's ineffectual prohibition laws suggests the balance of opinion at Westminster may be tilting towards common sense at last. Sad to say, the government shows few signs of following suit. Britain's existing laws are indeed, as committee chairman Keith Vaz puts it, "not working". It may be that drug use has dipped slightly in recent years. But one in five secondary school children still admits to having experimented with illegal substances. [continues 238 words]
Addicts who are trying to quit their addictions have pointed out various places in Atteridgeville where the infamous homemade nyaope drug is sold. A group of youngsters between the ages of 16 and 25, who have been using the drug for more than six years, have spoken out about their life of hell. All they want now is to help eradicate nyaope, which makes users aggressive and violent, from their community. "Kwape/nyaope is easily accessible in the township. On every corner there is a dealer so it is difficult for one to get off the drug. There are more than 10 houses here that sell the drug," said self confessed nyaope user Karabo Mphela. [continues 757 words]
"Tik messes with the heads of the foot soldiers," a source closely involved with the gangs told The New Age. According to him the violent behaviour created by the use of this designer drug makes it impossible for gang leaders to properly control their members and to stem the recent spate of killings and turf wars on the Cape Flats. "There is no discipline left." He explained that tik is increasingly becoming a serious problem in the tight and strict gang culture in the Western Cape. His main concern is that the gangsters on the streets do not heed the gangster rules that nobody shoots unless the orders come from the top. [continues 313 words]
The Western Cape department of social development has embarked on a visionary project to provide a social crime prevention and upliftment programme for the young people who live in the drug, and crime-ridden towns and suburbs of the province. The New Age last Thursday evening witnessed the enthusiasm and dedication of 180 young girls, who had just completed the three-month upliftment programme at their graduation ceremony at the Chrysalis Academy in Tokai, Cape Town. "These are all girls from gang-infested areas who had somehow fallen through the cracks," social development MEC Albert Fritz told TNA. [continues 341 words]
The ceasefire serves no purpose. Our people must unite and stand together against this threat "IT is just a matter of time then we will come knocking on your doors in the fancy suburbs where you are living," Pagad's national coordinator, Abdus-salaam Ebrahim, warned the drug lords this week. The People Against Gangsterism and Drugs' (Pagad) leader told the New Age in an interview at its headquarters in Athlone, Cape Town, that Pagad is not a Muslim organisation, but a movement for the people. [continues 402 words]
The killing fields on the Cape Flats are all about drugs and a turf war on behalf of the stinking rich drug lords living in comfort and safety in the upmarket suburbs of the city of Cape Town. They live there as "respected" citizens rubbing shoulders with law abiding people on Fridays at the mosques, on Saturdays in the synagogues and on Sundays at church. Organised crime have now grown into a sophisticated "business venture" of bartering between the main international suppliers of the raw materials for the manufacturing of designer drugs in South Africa, and rhino horn, perlemoen and shark fins. [continues 345 words]
The Western Cape is home to one of the most diverse cultures in the country with most of the nightclubs in the CBD owned by Jewish businessmen. They hire the Congolese and Moroccans as bouncers. The Congolese are regarded as fearless, loyal and also much more disciplined due to their military background. The Congolese and Moroccans are the first line of defence, "protecting" and ruling the underworld of Cape Town. They are the strong-arm bouncers and bodyguards at the night spots and for the mob bosses. [continues 404 words]
With an estimated 300 000 people using more than half a gram of tik a day, more than 150kg of this designer drug is needed to supply the demand for it in the greater Cape Town area per day. Selling at street level for more than R30 a "straw" (less than half a gram) explains the cut throat gang wars being fought for this very lucrative drug market. Crystal Methamphetamine-popularly known as "tik" is chemically related to amphetamine and is known for the violence it triggers among its users. [continues 305 words]
This week's stories about South African drug mules in far-away countries resuscitated a deliberately forgotten episode of my life a visit to a prison. In 1998, while employed as a senior writer for a weekend publication, Correctional Services authorities granted me access to a group of women serving long jail terms at Sun City prison south of Joburg. As I walked through the female section of the prison in my jeans and running shoes, I attracted stares, waves and smiles from female prisoners young and old, black and white with the same magnetic force. [continues 1049 words]
No margin of error is acceptable when it comes to the death penalty. This is why the gallows, lethal injection, firing squad or any other means of judicial killing should be forbidden. Morality of executions aside, the finality and the possibility of even the smallest mistake, make capital punishment unacceptable. So it was in Janice Linden's case, where Chinese officials put her to death on Monday after airport authorities found 3kg of methamphetamine in her luggage three years ago. She apparently never admitted guilt, suggesting that the tik might have been planted. As long as there was a sliver of doubt about this, and any plausibility in her protestations of innocence, she should not have been executed. [continues 198 words]
'You must come and see me soon." These were the tearful words of Janice Linden to her two sisters, Nomalizwi Mhlophe and Priscilla Mthalane, during a 45-minute visit at Guandong prison in China, the day before she was executed by lethal injection. She was not aware that she was going to die and one of the conditions of the visit was that her sisters from Durban were not allowed to tell her. Linden, 36 was arrested three years ago at the Baiyun International Airport, in China after 3kg of tik (methamphetamine) was found in her luggage. [continues 726 words]
China is not alone in imposing the death sentence, but it is by far the most enthusiastic proponent of state-sanctioned executions. The execution yesterday of a South African woman for drug smuggling added to a number which, while never officially revealed, is widely believed to dwarf the rest of the world combined. China does not publish statistics on the number of people it executes annually, but Amnesty International estimates it to be in the thousands. Among those executed this year was Janice Linden of Durban, put to death yesterday after being convicted of smuggling 3kg of methamphetamine into the country in 2008. [continues 106 words]
THE execution yesterday in China of a South African for drug smuggling brings the horror of the death penalty close to home. Janice Linden of Durban was put to death after being convicted of smuggling 3kg of methamphetamine into the country in 2008. China is not alone in the world in imposing the death sentence, but it is by far the most enthusiastic proponent of state-sanctioned executions. China does not publish statistics on the number of people executed annually, but Amnesty International estimates it to be in the thousands, though earlier this year the number of crimes carrying the death penalty in China was reduced by 13 to 55. The number of executions every year is widely believed to dwarf those in all other countries combined. [continues 233 words]
When Thieves Broke into Nonhlanhla's Home, They Took Her Most Valuable Possession: Her AIDS Drugs, Which in Urban Legend Are a Key Ingredient in a New Narcotic Called "Whoonga". Experts say whoonga doesn't actually contain Aids medication, but is rather a combination of heroin, rat poison and other chemicals. That hasn't ended the public perception that whoonga is laced with antiretrovirals (ARVs), sowing fear among people who depend on them for survival. "I don't know who the dealers are, but I know that they use kids to steal ARVs for them. In the township you see kids stealing the medication of their parents and selling it to the people who make whoonga," Nonhlanhla said. [continues 376 words]
The alleged double-life of a pretty suburban mother-turned-dope dealer was exposed in a Durban court this week. Charmaine Bell, a 34-year-old single parent from the "leafy" suburb of Waterfall outside Durban, allegedly ran a thriving dagga business from home until she was raided by police three months ago. In papers before the court it is alleged that the unemployed mother peddled various strains of marijuana and magic mushrooms, and that individual jars of marijuana labelled "Orange Blossom", "Hot Chocolate", "Tootie Fruity", "Indica" and "Mango" lined her kitchen counter. [continues 290 words]
The mother whose two children were removed from her following claims that they were neglected and exposed to "ganja" (dagga) as their parents belonged to a nomadic cult, desperately wants them back. The young mother, only identified as *Sandra to protect the children, spoke for the first time on Sunday after all her children were taken away by family members following interim court orders. She first had her son, who is about to turn six, removed from her care some years ago by her mother. This, Sandra said, was in spite of the family advocate recommending that the child should remain with her. [continues 657 words]
More than 1,000 South Africans are "languishing in appalling conditions" behind bars in foreign countries - 65 percent of them for drug-related offences. Of the 1,062 South Africans serving sentences abroad, 177 are in Brazil and 109 in the United Kingdom. Most of those in Brazil are on drug-related offences. In Botswana and Peru there are 66 South Africans in jail and in Pakistan 42. Most of them jailed for drug offences. And those are the known cases where citizens have exercised their right to request consular assistance. [continues 570 words]
Tik is losing its grip on Western Cape teenagers, according to the latest medical research, which shows that use of the drug is most prevalent among people in their early 20s. But experts have warned that a new drug is likely to take its place. Figures released this week show that the average age of tik users has been on the increase since 2006. When the drug first started sweeping through Cape Flats communities, the average age of users was 19. [continues 286 words]
A Durban high school has taken a tough stance against drug abuse by becoming the first school in South Africa to have its pupils trained as anti-drug "marshals". New West Secondary School in Newlands West, which has more than 1400 pupils, started with its first batch of anti-drug campaigners this week. Foundation for a Drug Free World, an international non-governmental organisation, is running the programme. The first batch of 28 pupils are among 120 pupils from five Newlands West high schools taking part in the programme, paid for by the foundation and private sponsors, and will earn their "drug-free marshal" stripes next week. [continues 144 words]
Inside South Africa
