“I have been coke-free for three years now, but the battle has not stopped … Five minutes of confidence for a life-time of paranoia is a price I’ve had to pay.”
These are the disturbing words of one of many anonymous drug users whose stories are posted on Ravesafe.org.za, a South African website that aims to increase awareness of different drugs that are available in the country. It neither condemns nor promotes drug usage; it simply informs people of its effects.
“One night when I went out to a party with some friends, we decided to take coke and some other street drugs that were out on the table as well. I snorted, and I snorted till I couldn’t even think any more.
“The high was amazing, until I got a nose bleed. I freaked out and became extremely paranoid. My friends were too busy eating [Ecstasy] and they didn’t even notice my bleeding.
“If you want to be someone in life, it’d be wise to stay far away from cocaine,” says another drug user on the website.
The use of illegal stimulants such as crack cocaine, cat and tik is on the increase in South Africa, the Medical Research Council (MRC) announced last week.
Of 7Â 655 patients seen at 63 alcohol- and drug-treatment centres in five provinces in the first six months of this year, almost one in three reported having used crack cocaine, cocaine hydrochloride, methamphetamine (tik) and methcathinone (cat).
Shamim Garda, national executive director of the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca), told the Mail & Guardian Online that the number of drug users in Gauteng using crack cocaine, cat and especially tik has increased.
Sanca’s treatment of Gauteng tik patients “in the last six months has really grown”, she said, but it is not a significant number.
“It seems that it is being manufactured here [in Gauteng] and sold in the Western Cape. At the moment in Gauteng, we are not treating that many patients for tik.”
However, the MRC’s figures are compiled only from reported cases of drug abuse. There are many more drug users who do not seek help.
“The figures do not truly reflect the numbers of users of all drugs,” Garda said. “The problem is much bigger than the numbers. It takes time for people to present [themselves] for treatment, and not everyone that abuses drugs is ready for treatment at all.”
What is tik and cat?
According to Sanca, tik is the slang name given to the stimulant drug methamphetamine.
“Also knows as speed, ice, crank, crystal straw, chalk, or tjoef, tik usually appears as a white or semi-transparent, odourless, bitter-tasting crystal or powder.”
One can purchase tik in cool-drink straws, which could cost between R20 and R60 a straw in Johannesburg.
Its side effects include increased physical activity, rapid speech, aggression and argumentative behaviour, decreased appetite, a dry mouth and tremors.
Cat is also a slang name, given to the stimulant drug called methcathinone. It can be snorted or inhaled and is highly addictive.
The side effects are similar to those of cocaine: it causes euphoria, increased alertness, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. It is white in appearance and comes in powder form. It usually sells for R200 to R250 per gram in Johannesburg.
Both drugs cause an intense psychological addiction.
Findings
The MRC found that, based on data from of a South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (Sacendu) report, abuse of cocaine is most common, followed by methamphetamine — of the patients in the study, 17% had cocaine as a primary or secondary drug of abuse, compared with 12% for methamphetamine.
Cape Town appears to be the tik capital of South Africa, with 98% of these patients in the Western Cape coming from the city. The average age of tik patients in drug-treatment centres in Cape Town in the first half of 2005 was 21, with almost half under the age of 20.
Most of the tik patients came from the Cape Flats.
In Cape Town, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, roughly one in five patients were using crack cocaine.
The report said that while the use of cocaine appears to be stabilising in Cape Town and Gauteng, the Eastern Cape in particular has seen an increase in treatment demand over the past 18 months.
Treatment demand related to cat is the highest in Gauteng. Treatment for dagga has increased this year in Cape Town, Gauteng and Durban, while Mandrax treatment demand has declined at all sites.
MRC alcohol- and drug-abuse research unit director Professor Charles Parry said the increase in the use of drugs was not unexpected because people, when faced with various pressures, turn to the stimulants to make them feel better and more energetic.
He said an alarming finding is that there has been an increasing demand for the treatment of people addicted to heroin in Cape Town (13%), Gauteng (11%) and Mpumalanga (19%).
Sacendu data also revealed a large increase in the percentage of patients under 20 years needing drug treatment over the past few years.
Parry said this is primarily due to the increasing use of drugs by young people rather than any dramatic increase in treatment availability for them.
“Treatment centres outside Cape Town need to prepare for a possible increase in methamphetamine patients, and all alcohol- or drug-treatment centres should consider HIV testing of patients and ensure that programmes address drug-related sexual-risk behaviour as well as risks associated with intravenous drug use.
“Other recommendations put forward by the MRC included the need for provincial health departments to ensure that all hospitals are prepared and equipped to provide alcohol- or drug-related detoxification services,” Parry said.
The report also recommended that research be undertaken to explore opportunities for intervening at antenatal and other clinics for people using methamphetamine.
Authorities should also investigate the appropriateness of using schools as after-hour venues for outpatient treatment services for youths.