A DRUG WITH DEEP ROOTS

Skepticism Greets Yemeni President's Attempt to Tame Use of Khat

SANAA, Yemen--When President Ali Abdallah Salih came clean about his drug
habit during an election campaign, nobody here really cared what he did, how
much or how frequently. But when the Yemeni president renounced use of khat
in hopes the rest of the country would break tradition and follow his
lead--now that was news.

Salih said he would fill his time with exercise and computer lessons instead
of chewing the bitter green leaf that is Yemen's drug of choice. His appeal,
launched over the summer, sent a stir through the local markets and roused
curiosity about what the president expected people to do with their time if
they swore off khat and its mildly addictive stimulant effect.

"Everybody knows [khat] is of no good use," said a dealer in one of the
seven open-air markets where Yemeni men gather each afternoon to buy a daily
supply that, chewed for a long time, gives them a buzz similar to what large
quantities of caffeine might produce. "But there is nothing else to
entertain us."

"It would be a good idea for all of Yemen, but I don't think he'll be able
to," said another dealer, Muhammad Ali Darnajay, who supports Salih's call
for abstinence. Historically, the odds are not good for the president. Khat
has been chewed in Yemen for perhaps half a millennium, beating efforts to
tax it or eradicate it in the formerly communist southern part of the
country. It has supplanted other cash crops like coffee to occupy perhaps as
much as two-thirds of the arable land. One estimate is that khat accounts
for as much as 20 percent of Yemen's $40 billion gross domestic product.

"I tried to give it up but for three days I felt depressed and sleepy and
lazy," said Amin Azury, a young user from the village of Shibam, an hour's
drive from Sanaa. "You can chew khat and stand on a building 12 stories
high. . . . I have so much power that I could be a leading force for Islam."

Bought in freshly picked bundles for each afternoon's use, the leaves are
chewed in a large, continuously replenished wad over several hours, until
enough of the juice has been ingested for the plant's natural amphetamine to
take effect. Somewhat like an intense coffee high, it made one man chew his
fingernails until they bled. The leaf is commonly associated with heightened
feelings of personal prowess and formless, poetic creativity.

"Khat," said one ranking politician, "is in Yemen to stay."

Salih, nevertheless, declared he was giving it up and urged his ministers
and as many Yemenis as possible to do likewise. For the president, it was a
swap of traditional habits for more up to date ones that he would like to
see the country adopt in other areas too.

With a new constitution and multiparty system, Yemen recently had its first
contested presidential election, and Salih said repeatedly during the
campaign that he wanted the country to shed its lawless image--of civil war,
tribal justice and tourist kidnappings--to become a model the rest of the
Middle East would follow. A place of relatively mild climate, home of the
ancient Sabean civilization, existing in the shadow of Saudi Arabia but
proudly distinct in its culture and politics, Yemen is the greenest country
in the Persian Gulf and arguably the most violent. Damping the use of khat
would be as much a part of the country's make-over as Salih's efforts to ban
guns from the streets of major cities and break the penchant of Yemeni men
to use AK-47 assault rifles as a fashion accessory.

His decision also reflects an opinion commonly held among local users,
teetotalers and outsiders alike: That Yemen's khat habit is both unhealthy
and economically ruinous, a premise the government is analyzing in a major
new study meant to quantify the effect the drug is having on this country of
16 million.

Many of the conclusions are already suspected. Cultivation of the leaf is so
widespread it has displaced food plants, making one of the Middle East's
more fertile countries ever more dependent on agricultural imports. Millions
of dollars change hands daily in a trade that is legal but draining in one
of the region's poorest countries.

The health effects have also been hinted at in various medical reports that
linked the hours of daily chewing to stomach, oral and prostate problems,
insomnia, temporary schizophrenia and other ailments. The added toll of
chemical fertilizers and pesticides is a new subject of concern: Few Yemenis
wash the leaves before chewing.

This is not the only nation where khat is used. It is also common in the
nearby African nations of Ethiopia and Somalia, and is even available in
some U.S. cities. But nowhere has the practice become so culturally rooted.
Most Yemeni homes have a room arranged with upholstered seats along the
walls for hosting khat sessions, affairs that linger from midafternoon
sometimes until late in the evening, and which can be the scene of business
deals and animated political debates as well as glassy-eyed stupor.

During the elections voters carried khat to the polling places with them;
motorists and pedestrians by midafternoon commonly have a bulging wad of
khat leaves in their mouths; on one flight into Yemen, airline staff even
offered khat to a western visitor as a welcoming present. In one token
gesture, the country recently banned the use of the drug by on-duty security
officers.

All of which points to the difficulty Salih and others expect in taming khat
use.

Although not considered as physically addicting as cocaine or heroin, khat's
active agent, the amphetamine cathinone, places it in the same category as
those hard drugs under U.S. law. Users and medical reports say a strong
psychological dependence can develop.

Accounts collected on one Yemen Web site show the extremes. Some users
reported a sense of timelessness and enhanced personal power, while others
said the drug can also drive them into neurotic fits. One man reported
repeatedly fixing his household appliances. While folklore touts it as a
male aphrodisiac, one survey concluded that "most women disagree," because
khat tends to kill almost all appetites. Users often skip the evening meal.