By Shashank Bengali
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Fresh load: Residents check out the khat in Djibouti City, about 11 tons of it flown in daily from neighboring Ethiopia. "Everything we do depends on our majesty, khat," says one Djibouti resident. Photos by Evelyn Hockstein / Knight Ridder

DJIBOUTI — In this overwhelmingly Muslim nation, alcohol is frowned upon and hard drugs are exceedingly rare. But one stimulant dominates the lives of Djibouti's half-million citizens: khat, a green leaf that when chewed gives the chewer an amphetamine-like high.

Its influence becomes clear every day at lunchtime, when nearly all Djiboutian males retreat inside with a handful of friends to gnaw gently on ball-sized lumps in the sides of their cheeks.

"Everything we do depends on our majesty, khat," said Mahdi Moussa, 32, a hotel driver.

Khat is illegal in many Western countries, including the United States and Canada. But among Djibouti's laid-back professional class, an afternoon of khat-chewing is like a round of golf, helping to cement deals and relationships. For others, it's a social lubricant, good for whiling away the day with friends.

But the drug has more serious effects than that warm buzz. For poor people, it's a very expensive hobby.

All of Djibouti's khat is imported — 11 tons of it daily, mostly by plane from Ethiopia. It's a huge drain on the economy of this country, which, despite a strategic port on the Red Sea, has no natural resources and scant rainfall.

Every year, Djiboutians spend $170 million on khat, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. For an average family, that's between $700 and $1,800 per year — 10 percent to 19 percent of a household's income.

That doesn't leave a lot of money for other things, like food. Experts believe spending on khat is a key reason Djibouti has one of the world's highest rates of child malnutrition — about 70 percent.

Half have no job

There's a leaf for every household budget in a country where the unemployment rate is 50 percent. The cheapest bundles go for as low as $1, while some men spend as much as $20 on a day's supply.

Khat sessions typically take place at home, sometimes in mabraze, rooms set aside for the purpose.

Khat users usually pluck an entire stem from the bunch of green leaves and stick it in their mouths, chewing slowly. The leaves are soft, but the initial taste is sharp and bitter, making the mouth suddenly feel completely dry as khat's active chemicals, cathinone and cathine, are released.

It takes about an hour of continuous chewing before experienced users say they start to feel light-headed. Then the drug really starts to kick in — users sit up straight, suddenly feeling more alert, and are quicker to laugh and shout.

In the late 1970s, Djibouti's first president tried to ban khat. Riots ensued. Today, said Chideh Abdi, a father of four, the government would be wise to leave khat alone, if only because it's a strong distraction for a desperately poor nation. "If there was no khat, we'd have to think about more serious things," Abdi said. "Like criticizing the government."