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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Kenya: Number of Kenyan drug users growing, says report
Dann Okoth The Standard, Kenya
Monday 03 Jul 2006 Nothing about his demeanour would give you a clue that Michael Kamadi* is a recovering drug addict. From his neat attire to the exceptionally suave posture, the 30-year-old graduate would pass for anything ranging from a middle class professional to an accomplished businessman. It is not until he begins to tell his story that one realises what lies behind the glossy and charming appearance. "I started taking drugs in 1992 when I was barely 16 years. I started by smoking cigarettes soon graduating to hard drugs such as cocaine," Michael said during a candid interview with The Big Issue last week. "My habit was encouraged by the company I kept and the fact that drugs such as cocaine were easily and readily available in Mombasa, where I lived." He says his neighbourhood in Magongo estate in mainland Mombasa literally swamped with drugs ranging from cannabis to cocaine and amphetamine type stimulants (ATS). Says he: "You didn’t need to have money to access drugs because they came cheap and friends were always willing to offer you dope." "Besides if you didn’t have the money, the peddlers were willing to accept little things like watches and other items, which we stole from our parents to exchange for drugs," he says. Sadly Michael is a representation of thousand of Kenyan youths who are caught up in drugs following the proliferation of the substances in the country. Traditionally, Kenya has been known to be a transit point for international drug traffickers, but experts now say the spillover effect is responsible for the worsening drug abuse situation in the country. A new report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the global drug situation ranks Kenya as the largest transit point for international drug trafficking in East Africa. Statistics collected between 1999 and 2004 show that over 178.113 kilogrammes of heroine and 1169.796 kilogrammes of cocaine have been netted at Kenya’s ports. The 2006 World Drug Report also indicates that annual prevalence of abuse as a percentage of the population aged between 15 and 64 years was increasing rather than decreasing. "I think what is happening in the Caribbean and the Far East as far as the drug situation is concerned impacts on Kenya directly because of the transit routes," says John Ndambesa of UNODC. He adds: "The spillover effects from international drug trafficking has gotten worse over the years to the point that we have zombies roaming our streets today." He says that drug traffickers from far eastern countries such as Afghanistan targeting European, American and Canadian markets pass through Kenya, adding that this has led to the escalation in drug peddling and abuse situation in Kenya. While the report notes that there has been notable progress in the world drug situation since 2005, there have been weak elements in the global drug control system. The most notable are heroin supply in Afghanistan, cocaine demand in Europe, and cannabis supply and demand everywhere. "The world’s supply of opium has shrunk, but in an unbalanced way. In a few years, Asia’s notorious Golden Triangle, once the world’s narcotic epicentre, could become opium-free. But in Afghanistan, while the area under opium cultivation decreased in 2005, the country’s drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal," notes the report. It further notes that while the area under coca cultivation in the Andean countries has fallen by more than a quarter. Demand for cocaine is rising to alarming levels in Europe. "I urge European countries not to ignore this peril. Too many professional, educated Europeans use cocaine, often denying their addiction, and drug abuse by celebrities is often presented uncritically in the media, leaving young people confused and vulnerable,’ says Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director UNODC. Such developments in the world drug arena do not augur well for Kenya, which in circumstances beyond its control, is caught up in the international drug trafficking web, largely due to its strategic positioning. Meanwhile, the UNODC report gives special attention to cannabis, commonly known as bhang, a drug that it notes is almost readily available everywhere Kenya. "The ease with which the plant can be grown everywhere and anywhere including indoors makes it easy to obtain by users." Indeed, notes the report, cannabis is the world’s most popular illicit drug with an estimated four per cent of the world’s adult population consuming it each year, more than all the other illicit drugs combined. Interestingly, though cannabis is controlled with the same degree of severity as heroin and cocaine under a single convention on narcotic drugs. Virtually every country in the world is a party to that convention. However, cannabis offences are treated far more leniently than those related to other narcotic drugs in many countries thereby sending a conflicting message to the public. According to the report the volumes of cannabis seized by the police internationally have been increasing since the early 1990s and recent surveys show that the global demand has increased. "An estimated 162 million people used cannabis in 2004, over ten per cent more than the late 1990s." it says. Besides the widespread production and use of cannabis the world over the drug now poses a new threat as traffickers seek to make the drug more potent to attract the market. There are documented evidence of adverse effects of cannabis on users, which include adverse physical effects, alteration of brain functions for example slowing reactional time while driving and aggression. The biggest bottleneck in controlling the drug, the report notes, is the authorities lack of knowledge about the nature of cannabis markets. "There remain large gaps in our understanding of where and how the plant is cultivated and consumed. This ignorance is particularly dangerous because many assume that cannabis is well understood and base their decisions on shaky foundations," it says. While the report notes that the performance of multilateral system has over the last hundred years, reduced and contained the drug problem at the global level, tracking a trend over a century is difficult because there are few facts. According to Costa countries need to do more to reduce drug demand in general and target ATS and cannabis in particular adding that the profile of the users of these drugs differs from that of cocaine and heroine, and treatment appropriate to their needs is still widely unavailable. There is also need to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids among injecting drug users, whether they are street addicts, sex slaves or prison inmates. "While drug market trends are moving in the right direction, more work is needed to ensure that these trends are sustained. After so many years of drug control experience we now know that a coherent long-term strategy can reduce the supply, demand and trafficking. If this does not happen, it will be because some nations fail to take the drug issue sufficiently seriously and pursue inadequate policies. In other words, each society faces the drug problem it deserves." she says. http://www.eastandard.net/mag/mag.php?id=1143954757&catid=176
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