DRUG TRADE SPILLING OVER TO ADDICTION

BISSAU // Now the epicentre of an expanding West African cocaine
trade, Guinea-Bissau is confronting an entirely new problem that
threatens disaster for its fragile health, law enforcement and
justice systems - a burgeoning population of home-grown crack addicts.

Unheard of until recently in this tiny former Portuguese colony, use
of crack cocaine is a spillover effect of the transnational cocaine trade.

During the past few years, traffickers have increasingly been using
Guinea-Bissau as a transit point to move drugs from South America
into Europe. Large cocaine shipments arrive here to be broken down
into smaller quantities before being smuggled onwards.

But some of the drug remains in the country, where it is refined into
cheap crack cocaine that feeds a growing number of addictions. The
phenomenon is so new that no statistics on the domestic market exist,
and officials seem unaware of the problem.

"The Guinea-Bissau population is out of this story, fortunately,"
said Carmelita Pires, the country's justice minister. "People from
Guinea-Bissau are nice people and fortunately they don't have
problems with drugs."

Luis Cabral, the attorney general, echoed her remarks, emphasising
Guinea-Bissau's role as solely a transshipment point.

Although the vast majority of cocaine arriving in the country ends up
on the streets of European cities, The National was able to document
use of crack cocaine in poor areas of the capital city, Bissau.

In one neighbourhood a local drug lord conspires with police and some
residents to hide the problem - indicating one reason that crack use
has rarely been exposed to the public.

In a dusty cul-de-sac at the end of a labyrinthine network of rutted
dirt roads, a group of young men stood lounging in the midafternoon
sun. One of them entered the dingy, walled-in porch of a ramshackle
house. In his hand he held a pebble-sized rock of crack cocaine.

The addict fashioned a pipe out of a broken section of car antenna
and a piece of tinfoil. He began to smoke with single-minded
determination, ignoring the click of the camera and questions being
asked through a translator.

His reverie was broken suddenly by a large man wearing a gold chain
who entered the veranda. The man - later identified as a dealer -
became irate because he suspected that drug use was being documented
by agents for Interpol, the international police agency, which is
active in the country.

As the drug dealer continued his tirade, residents gathered around,
forming a group of about 70 people. Many shouted in Creole and
attempted to grab photography and recording equipment. About 20
minutes later, the scene calmed with the arrival of a pickup lorry
filled with armed police officers.

At the police station, the drug dealer and police officers colluded
to make sure evidence of drug use was erased.

Given their poor training and meagre pay, it is perhaps not
surprising that members of the security forces and judiciary have
been corrupted by drug money.

The United Nations estimates that US$1.8 billion (Dh6.6bn) worth of
cocaine transits West Africa each year. The drug is worth up to 10
times that amount on the streets of Europe. Much of it passes through
Guinea-Bissau, which the United Nations ranks as the third-least
developed country in the world.

"I don't think we can avoid talking of corruption, of permeability,
of both of the law enforcement apparatus and of the judicial system,"
said Antonio Mazzitelli, the West Africa representative for the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Drug cartels looking for a base of operations found a welcoming
environment in Guinea-Bissau, where the security and justice sectors
are notoriously corrupt and ineffective.

"Even if somebody is arrested he has a very good likelihood of
escaping prosecution, through corruption or [some other] break in the
prosecutorial chain," Mr Mazzitelli said.

Given their fragile state, the police and justice systems are
ill-equipped to deal with the rise of crime that will inevitably
follow an epidemic of crack use, as it has in cities throughout the world.

The cocaine trade is relatively new to Guinea-Bissau, arriving around
2004, according to UNODC. So far, the country has been spared the
bloodshed that plagues such countries as Colombia or Mexico, where
drug cartels are powerful.

But the violence may be starting already. Ms Pires, the justice
minister, said Guinea-Bissau recently had its first drug-related homicide.

While rival gangs battle over profits from the drug trade, thefts are
likely to become commonplace as a growing number of crack addicts in
poor neighbourhoods struggle to feed their addictions.

"You don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't have nice clothes, you
don't have shoes. All you want is to steal something and smoke," said
one recovering crack addict who requested anonymity.

An epidemic of drug use would also overwhelm the country's crumbling
health system. It covers only 40 per cent of the population,
according to the World Health Organization, and offers no drug
treatment programmes. The closest Guinea-Bissau has to a drug
rehabilitation centre is a mental health facility started by Domingos
Te, an evangelical pastor.

Mr Te raised money to build the facility in 2002 to house people with
mental health problems. But over the past couple of years more crack
addicts have been turning up, he said. Families often turn addicted
relatives who steal from them over to the police, who bring them to the centre.

But the facility is not able to offer proper accommodation to its
patients. Many are chained outside to prevent them from wandering
off. The centre also lacks trained staff, and relies mainly on
religious instruction as a substitute for treatment.

"We work in the spiritual area to know God's word," Mr Te said. "God
judges the person who does bad - that's what we teach them."

Guinea-Bissau's domestic drug-abuse problem is still in its early
stages, and is small enough that government officials deny its
existence. But some predict that West Africa could soon face a crack
epidemic similar to those that have ravaged the streets in western cities.

In developed countries, hotly contested theories abound about how
best to fight and treat drug abuse. But the debate has hardly
penetrated West African countries, many of which are struggling to
recover from war, as well as poverty and corruption.

Mr Mazzitelli of the UNODC said a crack epidemic will only add to the
region's woes.

"If the issue is not addressed in the short term - in the mid-run
certainly - together with its already important health problems, they
will have to face the problems of drug dependency and of the violence
that drug dependency generates."