Drug Abuse: An African Perspective

I just returned from a speaking tour in South Africa where I visited Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Its a truly exciting, modern and vibrant country but the country is still struggling with poverty, social injustice and a rising violent crime rate. Drug abuse is rampant among the black population. According to South African healthcare experts 11% (5.7million people) of the South African population will suffer from an addiction disorder in their lifetime. Other experts estimate that the number of addicts already exceeds 15% of the population. Drugs of choice include whoonga (mixture of heroin and dagga), along with the rising use of heroin, cocaine (crack) and tik (methamphetamine). Whoonga – also called wunga or nyaope – is a potent and highly addictive mixture of marijuana, heroin and HIV medications. Nyaope is a whitish powder - low-grade heroin mixed with ingredients such as rat poison and sometimes even crushed-up medicine for people with HIV. Sprinkled on top of marijuana, it is a highly addictive, life-wrecking drug cocktail. I think its important for us to follow the international variations of drug abuse because with globalization and international travel "exotic" drug combinations can travel fast, too. Yours Bernd