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Mankaton Free Press
By Brian Ojanpa
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Three Mankatoans of East African descent were arrested on drug charges last weekend for possessing a box of plant matter resembling the lawn debris you might rake up after a summer storm.
The stuff is khat, pronounced “cot,” or “got” or variations thereof.
Interesting stuff, this khat.
The ancient Egyptians used the stimulant to achieve a state of god-like euphoria, and an 11th-century Persian scientist wrote that khat “relieves biliousness (digestion problems) and is a refrigerant for the stomach and liver.”
Now it’s just another means among many to achieve a mild buzz. If it makes you feel god-like, so be it.
“In my business, we always talk about the ‘drug of choice.’ If people like something, they’ll go the extra mile for it,” says Michael McGinnis of Addiction Recovery Technologies of Mankato.
The extra miles for the three arrested involved importing the stuff from Africa by way of France.
The nearly 17-pound shipment had a so-called street value of $6,000, but because khat rapidly loses its potency after the shrubby plant is harvested, that potency might have been reduced to the equivalent of a strong cup of espresso.
Khat correlates to a diet-pill level of amphetamine, and as a Third World ditchweed type of substance, it’s not likely to expand its allure beyond African populations.
“It competes poorly with a lot of other stuff available,” McGinnis says of America’s buffet of stimulants — illicit and otherwise — none of which has to be chewed like a cow’s cud.
Khat is big in places such as Somalia, where it has had a rocky recent history.
In 2006, the country’s Islamic ruling body made usage and distribution illegal. A month later, it was back on the street after forces of a provisional government took control of the nation.
(As a side note, those much-ballyhooed Somali pirates reportedly go through khat as if it were Bazooka).
Khat is to some cultures what coffee is here. A Mankato Somalian told me in confidence that khat goes for about $40 a bundle, and by the time it finds its way here, its efficacy has been reduced to khat lite.
He says he doesn’t partake but has been in plenty of social situations where others chew freely, with seemingly no outward physical effects.
Source: Mankato Free Press, Feb 21, 2009