The latest drug bust in the Knysna and Plettenberg Bay area has spotlighted a ”new” drug in the area.
Although in the past more commonly known as a traditional healing medicine (Muti), the latest natural product being abused as a drug is Khat.
Khat is a plant widely distributed and used for centuries for various reasons in East Africa, as far as Ethiopia and South Yemen. In South Africa it is also called Bushman’s tea and occurs naturally from the Eastern Cape to Mpumalanga.
Going by numerous names — such as Kuses-Salhin, Abyssinian Tea, African Salad, cat, chafta, four of paradise — the plant is used as an important part of Yemeni social life (in birth, circumcision, marriage and funeral celebrations).
The wood of the plant is used for rafters, building poles, furniture, wood pulp, and fuel in Kenya. In Somalia it has become part of the country’s gender roles, where the men get ”stimulated” by the drug, become totally apathetic towards everything and it is left to the women to support the family and ultimately the economy.
In some countries and now in South Africa the Khat plant (of the Catha edulis, Forsk, Celastraceae family) has become a ”social drug”. The leaves of the plant, which contains cathinone and cathine, are chewed. The active constituents (controlled both under the Medicine Act and the Drug and Trafficking Act) have stimulatory effects on the central nervous system and are structurally, chemically and in effect similar to amphetamine.
At first a Khat chewer will experience wakefulness, a feeling of well-being and mental alertness. When its effects wear off, it generates lapses into depression, similar to those in cocaine users, and produces great thirst. Other effects are constipation, impotence, dizziness, increased blood pressure, outbreaks of irrational violence, diminished appetite, psychological disorders and hallucinations. Long-term use may lead to insanity, followed by coma and death.
Now cultivated in the Eastern Cape, the drug has become a lucrative crop, being sold in bundles — much like fresh herbs.
Acting on a tip-off from a member of the public, Inspector MJ van der Westhuizen of the Knysna dog unit, and a colleague from the Uitenhage dog unit and Constable AJ Hugo of the Knysna Task Force stopped a taxi travelling on the N2 near Plettenberg Bay en route from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town. A 31-year-old Somalian man on board the taxi was found to be in possession of a bundle of Khat with a street value of R50. In the trailer, unbeknown to the taxi driver and other passengers, the same man had stowed eight boxes containing 529 bundles of Khat. He was arrested.
This arrest for possession of and trading in Khat is the first of its kind in the Knysna/Plettenberg Bay area. — Knysna-Plett Herald