WHY DRUG ABUSE IS ON THE RISE

Nairobi

John Mwangi loves the Nairobi Central Business District. The 21-year-old
street "boy" loves the place because he does not have to go to the
residential estates to get his daily needs.

Up to that point, Mwangi is right because Nairobi, like all cities, needs
to be self sufficient in order to cater for its residents.

The only difference is that the daily needs Mwangi has access to without
going to the residential estates are mainly alcohol, inhalants, drugs and
other substances that he abuses and is perpetually inebriated as he goes
about his chores of rummaging through heaps of waste in Kirinyaga, Kijabe
and River roads.

Just five years ago, Mwangi would have been forced to walk up to either
Muthurwa Railways quarters, Ziwani, Shauri Moyo, Landi Mawe or any other
adjacent estate to get his daily dose.

The suppliers, recognising the needs of those who abuse their wares and in
order to lure more, decided to move closer. Thus, one can now have access
to chang'aa right in the middle of the city.

The suppliers of smokable drugs and inhalants have also moved closer to
their customers, and in the process, have just become another link in the
chain that has made drugs easily accessible to young Kenyans.

"We buy whatever we need right here," says Mwangi, as he stands on a heap
of waste paper on an open field overlooking Ngara Girls and River Bank
Primary, a plastic bottle half full of glue dangling from his lips. "We are
self sufficient."

Across the river, as one approaches the city centre from downtown, chang'aa
vendors make their way through the crowd of mechanics, food vendors,
scavengers, occasionally stopping to serve customers who need a drink in
order to face the day.

If others are walking around, there are those who are huddled in corners
awaiting customers, too, as they break off from their duties to have a
drink, then go back. In this part of Nairobi, people are perpetually high
as inhalants and other drugs for those who do not drink are easily available.

But, generally, those using different kinds of stimulants simultaneously
are the rule, and it is not uncommon to see a street child put his bottle
of industrial glue aside to down a drink, then pick up the bottle and
continue sniffing with abandon.

"We cannot afford what they sell in those bars up there," says Mwangi, as
he drags on a roll of Sh5 bhang he removed from the pockets of his greasy
pair of trousers. "We need an alternative which is low priced."

To cater for their low income customers who care for a joint, the vendors
are bending backwards to supply slimmer joints of bhang which they sell at
Sh5, which is lower than for the "normal" size.

"They understand our needs and that is why they roll up smaller joints,"
says Man Karis. "Even the measures for the drinks are smaller and cheaper
than in the estates."

The 16-year-old dead eyed zombie who, like the rest of his colleagues who
scavenge on the heap of waste paper next to Kijabe Street, uses all kinds
of substances that would make him inebriated, admits that access to the
drugs has become easy over the past two years.

"It was a little bit difficult getting most of what we now get around
here," he says. "But now, I can get a joint without leaving this heap."

To free themselves from walking the lanes selling their wares, some dealers
have formed "joint" ventures with the street children, who they give the
substances to sell on their behalf. Other street children who have made
their bones have themselves become vendors and buy from the suppliers, for
onward retailing to colleagues and other customers who find their way to
these backstreets.

If that be the life downtown when it comes to drugs, up town, it is no
different either, and there is equally easy access, and no dearth of young
users.

While the street children may drown their sorrows with chang'aa, the sons
and daughters of salaried Kenyans are finding alternatives also in the form
of cheaper drinks in sachets.

These drinks are sold in the supermarkets and are also available in wines
and spirits shops that dot Nairobi estates and street corners.

But Mr Joseph Kaguthi, the National Co-ordinator for the National Agency
for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), says the use of hard drugs
like cocaine, heroin and mandrax has increased in the country.

"Matters have been worsened by the failure of the Ministry of Health to put
up rehabilitation centres as stipulated by Section 52 of the Drugs and
Substances Abuse Act of 1994."

According to a survey, Youth in Peril: Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Kenya,
contrary to common assumption, substance abuse is widespread and cuts
across all social groups of the youth.

The survey, which was the first-ever national baseline survey on substance
abuse among the youth aged between 10 and 24 years, was commissioned by
Nacada. The survey, whose results were released on Friday, traces the rapid
spread of substance abuse to the breakdown of indigenous society and to the
introduction of foreign influences that have made a variety of substances
available on a large scale.

Ultimately, substance use by the youth implies a breakdown of family values
earlier evident in the indigenous society and, as a result, several parents
have lost control over their children. Freed from parental control, some of
these children have succumbed to substance abuse.

Even though evidence shows that a number of non-students engage in
substance abuse, the majority of students who abuse drugs are in secondary
schools and universities. Most come mainly from middle class families and
entertain the falsehood that substance use enables a student to study for
long hours.

The frequency, as well as the type of substance abuse, varies from province
to province. When it comes to alcohol, the prevalence among students is
highest in Western (43.3 per cent), followed by Nairobi (40.9 per cent),
Nyanza (26.8 per cent), Central (26.3 per cent), Rift valley (21.9 per
cent), Coast, Eastern and North Eastern at 21.3, 17.2 and 1.6 per cent
respectively.

Prevalence is high even among non-students in Western at 90.1 per cent,
followed again by Nairobi at 89.9 per cent, then Rift Valley, Central,
Nyanza, Eastern, Coast and North Eastern at 86.1, 84.1, 81.5, 73.4, 73.1
and 15.6 per cent respectively.

The prevalence of bhang use among non-students aged between 10 and 24 is
highest in Nyanza followed by Nairobi, Coast, Eastern, Western, Rift
Valley, Central and North Eastern in that order while, among students,
bhang use is highest in Coast and lowest in North Eastern with Nairobi
being second highest followed by Central, Eastern, Western, Nyanza and Rift
Valley.

Nairobi leads again when it comes to inhalants, thanks to street children,
among both students and non-students. Inhalants use among non-students is
lowest in Coast Province and among students it is lowest in North Eastern.

Nairobi also leads in tobacco use among students, followed by Central,
Coast, Eastern, Western, Rift Valley, Nyanza and North Eastern. Among
non-students, tobacco use is highest in Eastern, Coast, Rift Valley,
Central, Nairobi, North Eastern, North Eastern, Western and Nyanza.

As is expected, the use of miraa is highest in Eastern among non-students
followed by North Eastern and lowest in Nyanza. Among students, its use is
highest in Nairobi followed by Eastern and lowest in North Eastern.

Over and above the five most commonly abused substances, the youth abuse
psychotropic as well as narcotic drugs such as amphetamines, harbiturates,
cocaine, codaine, Ecstacy, Heroin, LSD, Mandrax, Pethidine, Rohypnol and
Valium.

Psychotropic drugs are introduced to 37 per cent of the youth aged between
10 and 14 years and nearly 75 per cent of the youth aged below 19 years.

The survey reveals that while substance abuse by the youth ranges mostly
from the increasing use of illegal and "hard" drugs to legal and "soft"
substances, the youth mostly abuse four substances: Alcohol, tobacco, bhang
and inhalants.

On the whole, it reveals, substance use usually begins at a very young age.
For instance, for students it starts when they are in primary school,
secondary school or university.

Moreover, those who use miraa are not aware of its harmful effects because
the government has more or less legalised its use.

But it is increasingly becoming common knowledge that substance abuse among
the youth is turning out to be a major problem because they begin to
consume substances in early adolescence; abuse a wide range of legal and
illegal substances and mainly use alcohol, miraa and tobacco among legal
substances and bhang, cocaine and heroin among the illegal ones.

The problem of abuse is associated with the introduction of foreign ways of
life that have been undermining cultures of the indigenous society which
restricted the use of some substances such as alcohol to senior age groups
and to special occasions. But times have changed and alcohol consumption is
not restricted to senior age groups or special occasions. It is readily
available to adults and to youth between 10 and 24 years, though the law
prohibits its sale to and use by those under the legal age of consent.