ESCAPIST DRUG OF EAST AFRICA

The Euphoria-Producing Miraa Plant Permeates the Culture and Has Become One
of Kenya's Main Exports.

NAIROBI, Kenya - To the untrained eye, it's just a banana leaf tacked
to a door sill. To the connoisseur, it's a sign that the J-G Store
lives up to its claim: Quality Miraa.

"This is the best," says John, the clerk, unwrapping a small bundle of
stems with reddish-green leaves. "It's very tasty."

Nearby, a few customers nod in happy agreement, well on their way to
the euphoric buzz that helps soften the squalor of one of Nairobi's
worst slums.

Also known as khat (pronounced cot), miraa is a natural stimulant
derived from a shrub that flourishes in Kenya and other parts of East
Africa. The stems and leaves are harvested daily, wrapped in banana
leaves to stay fresh and sold in hundreds of ramshackle joints like
J-G, where the bright green leaf over the door signals that a new
shipment has arrived.

The miraa trade doesn't end there. Legal in many countries, miraa is
so popular it has become one of Kenya's chief exports, still behind
tea but now ahead of coffee.

Every day, planes from 747s to twin-engine Beechcraft carry tons of
miraa to Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Africa.

"It's a very big business for us," says Yatich Kangugo, manager of
Nairobi's Wilson Airport. He estimates that half of Wilson's annual
revenues derive from miraa shipments to neighboring Somalia, where
chewing the stems and leaves is almost a national pastime.

Miraa is banned in the United States, which lists its main compound,
cathinone, as a Schedule I substance, the same as heroin and ecstasy.

While the $250-million-a-year export trade is a boon to Kenya's
struggling economy, there is growing concern that miraa is hurting
society.

A recent survey found that almost a fourth of all students in Nairobi
use miraa, many in the belief it will help them stay awake while
reading. In eastern Kenya, with a large population of Somali origin,
almost 80 percent of adults chew the substance.

Kenya's passion for miraa drew international attention last month when
a Kenyan boxer was expelled from the Olympics because he failed a drug
test. It turned out he had been chewing miraa on the plane to Athens,
Greece.

"It is no longer a secret that drug abuse is increasingly becoming a
serious problem in the country," a Nairobi paper said, citing miraa in
particular.

Concern over miraa even spills into politics. East Africans have
cheered the news that warring factions in Somalia are making progress
in peace talks that could lead to the first functioning government
there since 1991. But some delegates to the talks, held in Nairobi,
worry that the Somali obsession with miraa could undermine
negotiations.

"Our men have become lazy over the years because of the widespread
trade that forces them to just sit and enjoy the product," Eng Rukia
Osman, an anti-miraa activist, told the Inter-Press Service.

"Our children have nothing to eat, let alone go to school, because
their fathers cannot work. Now that peace is in the air we have to
look at ways of reconstructing the country in all respects."

Throughout East Africa and the Middle East, miraa has long been
popular among Muslims who consider it an acceptable alternative to
alcohol and other mood-altering substances frowned on by Islam. Many
Muslims chew it during the fasting month of Ramadan because it
suppresses the appetite.

Miraa comes from the Catha edulis plant, a bushy shrub that can grow
to 20 feet. The leaves contain cathinone, which produces a euphoric
effect similar to amphetamines, and cathine, a less stimulating substance.

Within 48 hours after the plant has been cut, the cathinone starts to
degrade, leaving only the milder cathine. Thus the preference for
fresh leaves.

Customers usually buy a half pound of miraa at a time, with prices in
Kenya ranging from $1.50 to almost $10, depending on the quality. The
bark is stripped off with the teeth and chewed along with the leaves,
gradually producing large wads of miraa that cause the cheeks to bulge
out chipmunk-style.

Aficionados say miraa keeps them happy and alert for long periods.

"It sharpens the brain," says Steven Sande, who drives a matatu, or
minibus. "If I chew I can work 24 hours and not be tired."

Critics complain that the use of miraa by matatu drivers contributes
to the appalling accident rate. But Sande, 28, says he rarely chews
miraa at work, instead buying it only on weekends "when I have time to
relax and meet with friends."

Although not addictive, miraa can have side effects, including
depression, sleeplessness and, in chronic users, anorexia. Banned in
the United States, miraa is legal in Britain, the Netherlands and
other places with large Somali communities.

About 1 a.m. each day, pickup trucks begin arriving at Wilson Airport
with burlap sacks of miraa, picked just hours before in small groves a
few hundred miles north of Nairobi. Security at the airport was
increased last year when Kenyan authorities uncovered an apparent plot
to use a miraa plane to attack the U.S Embassy. All flights to Somalia
were halted - causing panic among Somalian miraa-lovers - and miraa
planes have since been barred from carrying passengers.

On a recent night, a few police watched as two airport screeners
searched the sacks by hand and with metal detectors. Dogs sometimes
join the screeners, but they sniff only the outside of the sacks
because their drool could affect the miraa's taste.

As dawn breaks, small planes - each carrying a ton of miraa - begin
taking off for Mogadishu and other Somali cities. Because the country
has no government, warlords handle the trade on the other end.

"You have to be okayed by whatever warlord controls whatever place
you're going," says M.A. Adnan, manager of flight operations for
Bluebird Aviation, one of Kenya's main miraa transporters.

When it got into the miraa business a decade ago, Bluebird sent as
many as 15 planes a day to Somalia. Now, there are just two or three,
with the company making most of its money from safari flights and
other charter operations, Adnan says.

The demand for miraa peaked during and immediately after Somalia's
civil war, when, Adnan speculates, Somalis were desperate for
something to help ease their stress. "Now the economic situation has
perhaps dictated a drop-off," he says.

The finest quality miraa - known as A grade - is flown on commercial
flights from Kenyatta International Airport to London and Amsterdam.
Regardless of where the miraa departs from, the goal is to get it from
grove to mouth within a day.

"It's like flowers - it must be fresh," says Kangugo, the Wilson
Airport manager.

Underscoring the widespread acceptance of miraa, the airport prohibits
employees from smoking, but has no rules against chewing miraa. And
while Bluebird's Adnan says he never touches the stuff himself, he
doesn't object to those who do.

"It's been there since time immemorial and as long as it's legal, I
have no problem with it."