Chasing the Dragon: The Rising Demand For Heroin In Southern Africa
blurb:isstoday25Sep08Heroine
25 September 2008: Chasing the Dragon: The Rising Demand For Heroin In Southern Africa
Heroin, one of the most addictive drugs available, is fast becoming the drug of choice of youth and adults in many southern African countries. Research findings of the last decade show that the sub-region was a key nodal point in the international transshipment of the Class A drug from the Far East where it is produced to the drug markets of Europe and North America. Whereas the belief was sustained that there was no demand for heroin in countries of the south (excluding South Africa), the tide has turned in recent years.
Heroin is an opiate, which acts as a depressant of the central nervous system. Historically, users have used heroin intravenously by way of injection. Improvements in the purity of heroin and the fear of HIV infection have however resulted in more new users snorting or smoking heroin. The inhalation of heroin vapours is known as ‘chasing the dragon’. A surge in the consumption of a heroin and cannabis mixture has been registered in South Africa. It is called “ungah” in Cape Town, “sugars” in Durban, “nyaope” in Gauteng and “pinch” in Mpumalanga. Experts fear that the noxious mix may soon overtake the methamphetamine or “tik” market in South Africa. At less than 4USD a fix, consumers have little problem to feed their addiction.
The effects of chronic heroin use are well known. Psychological and physical addiction may occur when using the drug consecutively over three days. Sustained use will lead to tolerance and cravings for the effects of heroin. If heroin use is suddenly abandoned, the user will experience withdrawal symptoms.
Research studies from Tanzania indicate a worrisome trend where heroin users are increasingly migrating from smoking brown heroin to injecting white heroin. A number of factors are thought to be responsible for this trend including the country’s transformation into a drug-consuming community; the growing importance of youth culture; poverty, unemployment and depression that facilitate recruitment into the heroin milieu and the need for a stronger fix and peer pressure. Heroin users can score a hit of heroin (0,05g) for less than 1USD in Tanzania. The increased use of heroin has devastating effects on families, friends and communities of the addict. Heroin addiction is among the most expensive and difficult to treat. The growing problem is reflected in the increased demand for treatment and detoxification facilities in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Similar trends are noticed elsewhere in the sub-region.
Heroin arrives typically on our shores from opium-producing countries in Southeast and Southwest Asia, such as Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan. Most heroin trafficked into South Africa is destined for domestic markets. Some of it is transshipped to the US and Europe. Those markets are largely saturated and thus drug cartels have turned their attention to emerging markets in developing countries. Increasingly the drug markets in other southern African countries are developing into fully-fledged drug markets with a rising demand for hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Traditionally, the use of narcotic drugs and stimulants was a pastime reserved for the moneyed classes. However, with the oversupply of the drug and the plummeting prices, anyone can now afford a dangerous drug habit.
Shipments arrive in a variety of ways: by air, sea and road. Similar to the well-documented emergence of the cocaine ‘mules’ who swallow pellets of cocaine, young Africans are recruited in their home countries with the lure of a free holiday in the Far East. Upon return they carry with, on or in them concealed heroin. Other means of transport include the shipment on fishing vessels, cargo ships and commercial ocean liners. Huge amounts of the drug arrive in containers addressed to powerful business people or politicians in places such as Zanzibar and other Indian Ocean islands. Revenue and custom authorities do not touch the containers that are destined for well-respected members of society. Heroin is also transported by road to southern African markets, hidden in trucks, vehicles or on persons. Once the heroin has arrived, criminal networks distribute it to local drug dealers and runners. While some of it is smuggled to drug markets within the region and beyond.
Who is involved in the heroin trade? The upper echelons of the crime syndicates usually consist of foreign nationals from opium-producing countries. In South Africa, Tanzanian and Nigerian syndicates appear to control heroin distribution. In other southern African countries, locals sell and trade in the illicit substance. Interestingly, most dealers appear to be ‘clean’, i.e. they sell heroin but they do not consume it.
How are we going to address the growth in the consumption and trafficking of heroin? Most importantly, government and law enforcement agencies should acknowledge the existence of the problem. The traditional belief that heroin is a glam drug abused by alternative youth subcultures in the northern hemisphere needs to be cast away. Drug addicts and members of concerned communities point to a number of neighbourhoods and townships spread across the sub-region where heroin abuse has skyrocketed over the past decade. Youngsters and unemployed youths assemble in no-go areas, their pinned eyes (a symptom of heroin abuse) a dead giveaway of their illicit leisurely activities. Once the severity of the problem is appreciated, a holistic approach to curbing the scourge is suggested. However, it would be wrong to concentrate on the supply chain only. Supply tends to display elastic qualities based on the demand for the drug. Government and law enforcement agencies with the help of communities, need to assess existing drug prevention strategies and adapt these to deal with prevention, combating and treatment. Communities and drug addicts should play an active role in formulating strategies and policies.
In conclusion, it is a known fact that poppy cultivation has more than doubled in Afghanistan since the demise of the Taliban. But can we blame increased heroin trafficking and consumption on the flooding of markets with heroin only?
Annette Hübschle, Senior Researcher: Organised Crime and Money Laundering Programme, ISS Cape Town Office
