By Bob Schaper
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
 |
 |
 |
Ahmed Hussen Hassan, 32, of Chicago
|
|
 |
John Biffany, SLANT commander
|
|
 |
Khat leaves
|
|
 |
| Scott Nelson, Rosecrance Treatment Center | |
ROCKFORD (WREX) - Rockford has a major drug problem, but police arrest a man for something most of us have never heard of. It's call khat, an illegal plant used in some African cultures to get high.
On Monday, Ahmed Hussen Hassan of Chicago, 32, was arrested after he took possession of a package mailed from overseas to a hotel in the area of East State Street and Interstate 90. Police claim the package contained more than 15 pounds of khat, a shrub that grows in the Horn of Africa.
"The package was intercepted in Philadelphia," says John Biffany, commander of the State Line Area Narcotics Team. "It had originated in China, went to Switzerland, Germany and then to Philadelphia."
Biffany says khat is hard to find in Rockford.
"We have had cases in the past, but it is not as prevalent as it is in communities with large Somali or Yemeni or Ethiopian cultures," he says. "It's popular in Chicago, where there's that community, it's popular in Minneapolis, where I believe there are 60,000 Somalis.
Scott Nelson, a drug expert at Rosecrance Treatment Center, says khat can be extremely addictive.
"It produces euphoria," he says. "And the effects are also somewhat similar to let's say crack cocaine or methamphetamine, but not as strong."
Nelson says when it's fresh, khat looks like basil.
"Sometimes it's brewed as a tea, sometimes it's chewed like tobacco. It can be smoked, and it can also for instance be sprinkled on food," Nelson says.
On Tuesday afternoon Hassan was in the Winnebago County jail, with bail set at $500,000.