SOUTH AFRICAN DRUG TRADE'S BITTER TASTE

South Africans are changing their hard-drug habits, but the fallout
from substance abuse remains the same: the destruction of lives,
families and communities.

Heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine abuse has risen substantially in
the past few years, while the use of once-popular drugs such as
Mandrax has waned, according to a recent report by South Africa's
Medical Research Council (MRC).

The findings have raised concern about the spread of HIV/Aids through
practices such as needle sharing among drug users, and incidents of
serious crime by users looking to bankroll their addiction.

A 2007 report by the United States State Department's International
Narcotics Control Strategy listed 273 crime syndicates operating in
South Africa, of which at least 132 were involved in illegal drug trading.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a regional research
organisation, noted in a 2002 report, Drugs and Crime in South
Africa, that of the 2A 859 people arrested over a two-year period in
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town for serious crimes -- including
murder, attempted murder, rape and aggravated assault -- 46% tested
positive for at least one illegal substance.

"What this study does show is that drug use is common among people
arrested for committing a wide range of crimes ... While we cannot
say that most drug users are criminals; we can say that many
criminals use drugs," said the ISS.

The most startling finding in the MRC's study was the steep increase
in the use of crystal methamphetamine, known locally as tik, which is
especially favoured in the Western Cape. Easy to manufacture, the
drug produces the same "high" and aggressive behaviour as crack
cocaine but, unlike crack cocaine, which provides users with a
relatively short "high", the effects of tik can last three to four hours.

According to the MRC, in late 2003 only 5% of patients at
drug-rehabilitation clinics in the Western Cape cited tik as their
drug of choice, but by late 2006 this had risen to 42%; in the
under-20 age group, the figure increased to 59%. The report found
that the average age of drug abusers was 22, of whom the majority,
72%, were male.

"Tik is known as 'speed' in the West. It was first used during World
War II by Japanese kamikaze pilots and has been prominent in the New
York gay scene for a long time. It is taken in many other societies
around the world; it is just called something else," says ISS
organised-crime expert Annette Huebschle.

Gangsterism The MRC discovered that the relationship between mental
health and tik use also indicated societal reasons for tik's
popularity in the Western Cape.

"Our initial findings seem to indicate that tik use in the Western
Cape is most high where gangsterism is most engrained in the society.
It appears that way of life has a negative psychological affect on
the greater community that leaves them susceptible to its lure. The
communities tend to have a depressed mood and some use tik to
alleviate it," says senior MRC scientist Andreas Pluddemann.

"These gangs are the most organised of all the country's, and they
control the tik trade. They deal predominately in their own backyard
and to their own ethnic group [mixed race], which explains why you
don't see much tik abuse anywhere else," he comments.

Tik is replacing Mandrax, a synthetic drug containing the active
ingredient methaqualone, the main hard drug of choice in the Western
Cape in the 1980s and 1990s, which was also distributed in drug
networks controlled by gangs.

The MRC report found the use of heroin and cocaine had risen
significantly in the provinces of Gauteng, Eastern Cape and
KwaZulu-Natal, with a surge in cocaine use among the white
population, especially in the Eastern Cape, where 28% of whites in
rehabilitation clinics cite it as their drug of choice, compared with
11% or less in South Africa's six other provinces.

During the apartheid era, the choice of substances abused often
occurred mainly in a particular ethnic group, except in the case of
alcohol, which was abused by all races.

With the advent of democracy in 1994, "where you have mixed
communities, you now see drug abuse crossing the ethnic divide",
Pluddemann says. The use of tik among the coloured community in the
Western Cape remains one example of a predominant drug use practiced
by a specific ethnic community, although there are others.

Sugars Communities in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, are grappling with the
abuse of a drug known as "sugars", first noticed in 2002 by MRC
researchers, who obtain data from drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation
centres around the country.

Sugars is a highly addictive mixture of cocaine and heroin of such
low purity that it is often mixed with rat poison to assist it in
passing into the bloodstream. Its abuse has been concentrated among
the Indian population, while having little effect on the city's
African and white communities.

Users inhale the substance by a process known as "chasing the
dragon", in which the drug is smeared on to aluminium foil and
heated, and the user inhales the vapour.

Sam Pillay, chairperson of the Anti-Drug Forum, has witnessed how
sugars has embedded itself in the fabric of the city's Indian
communities, and over the past two years the forum has assisted more
than 5A 000 addicts.

"It [sugars abuse] started in Durban in the city centre among the
taxi drivers a couple of years ago. They then spread it to the
townships of Chatsworth and Phoenix, where it is causing untold
damage to the individual users and their families; the abuse has
changed these neighbourhoods," he says.

"Crime is going through the roof because abusers steal anything they
can to pay for their next hit. Gang wars have taken off -- there have
been four gang-related killings in the last few months -- and there
appears to be no end in sight," he says.

Trade Routes

After 1994, the country's subsequent reintegration into international
trade also saw the rise of drug trafficking in South Africa, both as
a destination and a channel to other countries. "These trade routes
have exposed people to a wide variety of illegal substances that
otherwise would be in short supply," the ISS's Huebschle says.

The rise in South Africa's drug abuse has mirrored its economic
growth and higher levels of disposable income, which have lead to a
doubling of the numbers of people seeking help from clinics for drug
addiction in the past decade, according to the MRC.

In 2006, the South African Police Service raided 52 illegal drug
laboratories and in the 12 months up to March last year reportedly
confiscated 46kg of methaqualone, 295kg of cocaine, 17kg of heroin
and 958kg of amphetamine-type stimulants, such as tik.

While coloured gangs are believed to produce and control tik,
Huebschle says the Triads -- the Chinese mafia -- are the main
suppliers of the ingredients that go into its production, and many of
these ingredients are legal in their original form.

With that in mind, Huebschle says greater international cooperation
is essential if the authorities are ever going to make significant
inroads into the illegal drug trade.

"There needs to be more cross-border cooperation between all the
police forces in Africa and further afield, so the international
crime syndicates and their trade routes can be tracked," she says.
"There is some cooperation, but not enough to give the major players
any cause for concern." -- Irin