CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Thursday
SOUTH Africa is the world’s largest producer of mandrax, a sedative often crushed and smoked with cannabis to create a addictive mixture which has now become the country’s “main drug problem”, authorities said on Wednesday.
“The immediate evil in South Africa is the ‘white pipe’ (cannabis and mandrax),” the chairman of the Central Drug Authority Frank Kahn said.
He was speaking at the release of an annual report by the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP) in Johannesburg.
Mandrax, a blend of methaqualone and diphenhydramine, was widely prescribed as a sleeping tablet in the 1960s but was declared illegal in the 1970s, when it was discovered to be dangerously addictive, especially when mixed with drugs such as alcohol.
Authorities here say South Africa accounts for about 80% of the world mandrax market, and that huge quantities were smuggled into the country last year.
Up to a third of patients at drug treatment centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town reported using mandrax or cannabis – or a blend of the two – as their prime fix, according to a survey conducted by the Medical Research Council between January and June 2000.
In 1999, close to 2.5m mandrax tablets were seized in the country, an increase of 40% from 1998, according to the South Africa Narcotics Bureau.
“South Africa has a unique drug abuse problem,” said Kahn, highlighting the broad abuse of mandrax and cannabis.
Rob Boone, the UNODCCP Southern African representative said cannabis seizures in Africa have increased from 14 to 24% of total global seizures over the past year. Western Europe and the United States are the biggest market for drugs imported from South Africa with cannabis the most popular import, followed by cocaine and heroin, according to the UNODCCP’s Pretoria office.
The country’s next big drug problem “will be cocaine and heroin,” Kahn predicted.
Since the dismantling of apartheid, South Africa’s borders have allowed for the freer movement of illegal drugs. Johannesburg and the eastern port of Durban are becoming hubs for the shipment of drugs abroad.
“Our international airports, porous borders and sophisticated banking and infrastructure have made South Africa a target for international drug syndicates,” Kahn explained. – AFP