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HIIRAAN ONLINE
E D I T O R I A L
Thursday, June 26, 2008
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There are two main types of khat - mirra and hereri
Mirra is grown mainly in Kenya
Hereri comes from Ethiopia
A bundle of khat costs around £3 in Britain |
If elected, UK Conservative Party is reportedly considering banning khat, a mind-altering leafy shrub, chewed by Somalis and others from East Africa and Yemen. Banning the possession, consumption and trafficking of this narcotic drug, is a sensible and long over due policy. The reversal of the open-border UK khat policy would be beneficial for not only Great Britain, but also, EU member-states and countries beyond.
Khat is presently a proscribed drug in countries as diverse as Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, UAE, Denmark, Tanzania, Zambia, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and the United States. Since khat is a legal product in the United Kingdom, this country has unfortunately become the transit and smuggling hub of the drug - and with devastating consequences.
Law enforcement and customs officials of the numerous khat-banning countries report increased trafficking most of which originating from the UK. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2003 alone, sixteen countries reported seizure of tons of contraband khat shipments. Canada intercepted 25 tons of smuggled khat. Similarly, in 2004, US law enforcement agencies seized 50 tons of khat. Had the UK authorities and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) discharged their national duties and international obligations by classifying khat as the drug it is, the global khat trafficking problem would have been less potent.
It is important to note that the problem of khat is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the defunct League of Nations looked at the problems of this stimulant as back as 1933. Sadly, though, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other relevant specialized UN agencies are yet to classify khat as the dangerous drug it is.
Ethiopia and Kenya are the two top producers and distributors of khat. Ironically, most of the people of Ethiopia and Kenya do not use khat. For the producers, khat export is a merely a money making scheme; while their governments see the trade as a source of hard currency. In Ethiopia, khat is the second largest export item after coffee. According to the Cultures of Consumption Research Programme, “Khat tax revenue as a share of GDP in Ethiopia averaged 1.7 per cent for the 1990s while public health expenditure as a share of GDP averaged 1.2 per cent, which means khat revenues finance health expenditure.” It is obvious that khat export is a vital and lucrative source of income not only for the traders, but also for the Ethiopian government.
That may explain why some members of the educated class are joining the khat promotion bandwagon. Here is how an Ethiopian khat “expert” and a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Ezekiel Gebissa, rationalize the importance of khat, "… Muslims use it to stay awake and pray, farmers use it for energy during long hours of physical work, and some urbanites, of course, use it for leisure. Farmers in higher altitudes in Latin America chew coca lives for heat. That's not the same reason as why people use the coca-derivative, cocaine, in the U.S. Obviously, the abuse of cocaine is not quite the same thing as the traditional coca use people have practiced for nearly two thousand years in the Andes region of South America. For farmers and traders in Ethiopia and countries in the Horn of Africa, khat is an important cash crop that provides employment to millions in the service sector."
Contrary to Dr. Gebissa’s sugarcoating of the dark nature and the negative effect of khat, the World Health Organization, states that clinical research demonstrate that the mental state of khat chewers is characterized “by a flight of ideas but without the ability to concentrate.”
Suggesting people chew khat to ponder in their prayers, is a bizarre stretching of khat reality, or to use the parlance WHO “a flight of ideas!”
One might put up with the flimsy excuses of an Ethiopian scholar who is in cahoots (wittingly or unwittingly) with his compatriots who are handsomely benefiting from the selling of khat. What is hard to fathom however, is the sheer naiveté projected by Somali scholars who unfortunately are contributing to the proliferation khat use. A national Canadian newspaper, attribute the following statement to the only practicing Somali legal professional who is working to decriminalize khat in Canada! This learned Somali lawyer tells the National Post newspaper that “Every community in Canada has something that is special to their culture …Khat is specific to the Somali and Yemeni communities. So when khat is criminalized, in essence you have criminalized the culture of these communities… Any law that affects specifically a group of people to the exclusion of other Canadians is a direct violation of the Charter”
Notwithstanding the exorbitant profit Ethiopian get from khat export, it should be noted that the Tigray state (the province current rulers of Ethiopia hail from) ban khat as an illicit drug. This fact alone should awaken Somalis who are oblivious to the danger khat poses to the Somali society.
More than any other people on the planet, the people of Somalia are the number one victims of this drug. Khat robs the Somali state and the Somali people their meager national and individual resources. Every day, dozens and dozens of khat-filled flights arrive from Ethiopia and Kenya. In return, millions of dollars part ways instantaneously with the Somali people.
The Somali people would have been lucky had the problems of khat ended with khat flights and the flight of the hard currency. There are other colossal and negative social, economic and health consequences associated with the khat trade. For one, khat creates psychological dependence. The men who nibble it turn into addicts who alternate their times between seven hours of chewing and even longer hangover period, which could at times last up to ten hours. Other direct byproducts of chewing of khat include broken families, absentee fathers and other ills such as the spread of dangerous diseases like tuberculoses. In other words, if tribalism (qabiil) is the visible epidemic that destroyed the Somali state, khat (qaad) is its creepy twin that ate the Somali society and economy inside out.
In our globalized world, the negative effects of khat will not be confined to Somalia and to the Somali people. For instance, three months ago, the first UK drug-resistant TB case is traced to a Somali patient. This dangerous public health incident should act as a wake up call to the UK authorities who, for many years, ignored the menace of khat in the UK society. It is not secret that HIV-AIDS and Tuberculoses (TB) are two major pubic health problems in both Kenya and Ethiopia. UK authorities and the UN Office on Drug and Crime must have known poor Ethiopian and Kenyan farm workers perform the harvesting, sorting and packaging of khat. Thus, the khat that is sold in UK cities and then turns up in other countries, such as Canada and United States, is probably contaminated. How khat is consumed in the UK - overcrowded small rooms - is also an ideal environment for the incubation and spreading of communicable disease such as TB.
The reported khat banning strategy of the Conservative Party of UK is a sound public policy plan. In contrast, the decades-long UN silence on the potent problems of khat is but a dereliction of duty.
UK and UN should acknowledge khat what it is: a dangerous drug that should be banned by all nations.
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