POLICE: KHAT DRUG SCENE'S NEW PLAYER

The chewy leaves and buds of an East African shrub called khat are
attracting growing attention locally from drug treatment and enforcement
officials, who hope it doesn't take root as a street drug here. Ohio
officials issued an alert Wednesday and the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike
Force is sending information to police in its jurisdiction about the plant
known formally as Catha edulis Forsk, and casually as khat, qat, Abyssinian
tea and African salad. In fact, "salad" is precisely how a motorist stopped
on Interstate 75 recently with what was thought to be khat described his
cargo to police.

"This was a person the officer had stopped for a traffic violation and then
for some reason he came across this stuff in the car," said Northern
Kentucky Drug Strike Force Director Jim Paine. "The occupants told him it
was 'salad' that was purchased at a specialty store geared toward people
from African nations. That was the first time that any has been seen in
this area."

The substance is so new to this area, Paine said, that the officer only
later learned that it was probably khat, an illegal Schedule I narcotic in
this country.

Khat can make users feel happy, chatty and energetic. But the biggest
obstacle to it becoming the latest recreational drug of choice is its short
shelf-life.

Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center Co-director Dr. Earl Siegel
said cathinone, the most powerful "feel-good" chemical in khat, rarely
survives the trip from shrub in East Africa to chew in Cincinnati.

"If it's preserved, at best it's going to last 48 hours," Siegel said. "So
if there are people waiting at the airport for it, maybe. But really it's
not going to be a major street drug here. - It just loses potency so quickly."

Paine said the traffic stop incident highlighted a need for dissemination
of information about khat locally, which the strike force has begun to do.

Likewise, the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addictions Services
issued an "early warning alert" Wednesday to educate school and drug
treatment and enforcement officials about khat.

Khat is popular and legal in the East African countries like Somalia where
it grows.

A flood of Somalis into Columbus recently has been accompanied by a flood
of khat, say officials, adding that many East African users are unaware the
plant is illegal here.

"The drug has increasingly entered the U.S. by these emerging cultural
enclaves," the Ohio early warning alert stated.