Winter has come earlier than expected this year. I feel this as the blistering cold hits my face and I pull my scarf higher, my hands jammed into my coat pockets as I hurriedly walk across a Gaborone mall on my way to a pub where I am to meet a former drug addict.
I have been waiting 48 hours for confirmation and she has finally agreed to talk to me. I look around and see several people hurrying to their cars after last-minute shopping, carrying plastic bags. In the distance I hear shouts and cheers coming from the pub. It must be the Liverpool and Chelsea game, I think to myself.
I enter the pub and scan the sizeable crowd, looking for my interviewee. She is not what I expected; not the tattered dodgy looking character I had in mind. Instead, she sits poised, sipping on a Long Island, slim hands with manicured, red painted tandols playing around with a top-of-the-range cell phone.
Her lips are knotted in a plump pout, her carefully-made-up face standing out from the crowd. Although she is pretty, I can’t help but notice her sunken eyes and protruding collar bones.
“How are you?” I ask her casually. She eyes me strangely. “How did you know it was me?” she asks with a drawl. I sit back and usher the waiter to order a drink and wonder if the drugs she takes have already messed her brain. When I entered she was the only woman seated alone in a bar filled mostly with men, looking around as if she was expecting someone. Common sense told me it had to be her.
When my Irish coffee arrives, we begin to chat like old friends and she tells her story. Lame Mosweu* began dabbling in drugs during her secondary school days.
“Back then, we smoked weed and cigarettes in between the regular binge drinking sessions we had. A male cousin of mine introduced me to cocaine. I hung out with his group a lot and we took drugs. One day my father found me lying on my bedroom floor passed out. I remember how he gave me a hiding I will never forget but sadly, it didn’t put me off drugs. I was hooked.”
After secondary school, Mosweu went to study at a Johannesburg university on a government scholarship.
“I have always been intelligent and I passed, even when I took drugs. I think this gave me an advantage over most of my contemporaries. When I got to varsity I felt free especially as I had my own money from the allowance we received.
“I also found a part-time job as a waitress at an up-market restaurant so I was in the money! Each month I had close to R7000 in my bank account. I didn’t have expenses so I splashed it all on clothes, partying and drugs. I got mixed up in the wrong circles and ended up as a real druggie. I started with cocaine, heroine and then ecstasy.
“It all started as an occasional thing but I soon took drugs daily. Even though I have little recollection of that period I think I changed. In my third year of my law studies I dropped out and got a marketing job through my connections. I was making a lot of money but unfortunately squandered it on drugs.
“I later lost the job and hung around doing nothing. Since I needed money to sustain my drug problem I sold most of my stuff and at some point prostituted myself.
“Word reached Botswana and my parents set off to collect me. It was embarrassing. I had disappointed them. I admitted my drug problem and was booked into rehab which set my parents back close to P20 000. At least afterward, I managed to go back to complete my law studies and graduated last year.”
Even though Mosweu is adamant that she has stopped taking drugs, I can’t help but wonder because she looks both edgy and shifty. After the chat when we bid each other good bye, she makes a beeline for the bathroom.
Drug use has for a long time been synonymous with the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Apparently the highs help them deal with the pressure and work that comes with their industry and professions.
However, the behavior of some users doesn’t always comply with the common perception of a “druggie” and that’s why it may be difficult to single out users. Some of them appear to be law abiding citizens although they occasionally use drugs, as is the case with Thuto* a local businessman.
“I use cocaine occasionally especially during those rock’n’ roll type of partying nights. I know many people around Gabs who do; it’s a close-knit circle and only a user can identify another user. We also use codes like ‘Nandos’, ‘Mascom’ or ‘Orange’ which all mean different drugs and dosages. If you aren’t one of us you will get confused and sit there expecting a succulent piece of Nandos chicken to arrive while we are referring to drugs,” he says.
Thuto appears calm and collected and lives a normal life. He is a revered man in his community and family. The problem with such individuals is that they can cause a problem for those who try and emulate them.
The African economic boom has come with negatives and one of those is drug trafficking. Africa is now a profitable hub of hard drug consumption. Unfortunately, most African countries do not have comprehensive drug treatment programmes or infrastructure to handle the soaring problem.
The most commonly used drug continues to be cannabis, followed by Amphetamime-type stimulants (ATS). Snorting of cocaine heroine use is also spreading across the continent especially as there are porous areas which drug trafficker’s target.
Africa currently occupies second position worldwide in the trafficking and consumption of hard drugs, which are all illegal.
According to UN statistics, approximately 37 000 people in Africa die annually from diseases associated with consumption of hard drugs.
The UN further estimates that there are 28 million drug users in Africa alone, not too far from Canada and USA’s 32 million. In sub-Saharan Africa, 1.78 million drug users are estimated to be injecting drug users and an estimated 221 000 injecting drug users are living with HIV.
After 2005, a substantial increase in drug usage and trafficking has been reported in the region. Drug use in neighbouring South Africa has grown to epidemic proportions ÔÇô with the introduction of mixed drugs like tick, woonga, nyaope and sextasy.
There are also over 600 South Africans in prisons abroad for drug trafficking offenses. One recent controversial case was of a young woman who was arrested and discovered to have 1.5 kg of cocaine concealed in her large Bongo dreadlocks. The drugs reportedly had a street value of $150 000.
While Botswana used to be a conduit of drugs, this is not the case anymore as drug dealers have found a market in the country. A few months ago head of Directorate of Intelligence Services Isaac Kgosi expressed concern over increasing drug abuse and peddling in the country.
“The main challenge is the source of the drugs ÔÇô the drug lords. They should be punished.” At the time, Kgosi added that DIS had recommended amendment of certain laws to introduce stiffer penalties on perpetrators.
“Drugs in Botswana are big…almost unbelievable. Some law enforcers know all major suppliers but some of them are being supplied or bribed, so they let the bad kid spoil. I know a lot of good young people whose membranes have been screwed. Every penny they lay their hands on ends up with drug lords in South Africa. The system allows a few smart people to rot as society spoils…so that there are a few radicals to come up and condemn the system’s political and governance failures on them,” says Zeb*, a popular Gaborone man.
“With so many young people rotting from alcohol and drug abuse who are the real leaders of tomorrow?”
It seems there is an active underground drug system in place in the city.
“The drugs are different but the biggest killer is crack cocaine ÔÇô it’s highly addictive and expensive because the high doesn’t last. One hundred pula gets you a shot. One can spend P3000 per day to maintain that high. Some ask their parents, others take loans while others steal…”
Youth are most vulnerable to drugs and easy prey for dealers and drug lords. Those mostly likely to be targeted are those who cannot resist peer pressure, as well as those from unstable backgrounds as they use drugs to try and escape from their troubles and challenges.
With this high increase in drug abuse, as well as the debilitating effects on health and social human capital, it is up to government, parents and individuals to take action against this tragedy permeating our society at shocking speed.
