Drug struggle worsened by police pedlars
THE CRIMINAL justice system has failed to lead the fight against nyaope and has been applying double standards by peddling the drug on city streets, says health and community wellness expert Jannie Hugo.
It has to choose a side and clean up its act, the associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Pretoria said.
He said criminalising the drug had failed mainly because police officers were involved in peddling it.
In response, the SAPS said Hugo’s allegations were serious and that it would investigate. Spokesman LieutenantColonel Lungelo Dlamini said: “Anyone who has visuals or any information that may lead to the exposure of the corrupt police officers should please come forward.”
Hugo is a family physician and responsible for the university’s community engagement in the faculty of health sciences. He leads a team of health practitioners and other stakeholders working on improving primary healthcare. The team includes the Department of Health, City of Tshwane, NGOs, law enforcement agents, social workers and churches, among others.
Hugo said the effects of nyaope were a serious concern for the health sector and that the failure to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation threatened to derail efforts to save young addicts.
“The dependency on the drug interlinks with diseases including HIV, TB, serious injuries, pregnancy and prostitution,” he added.
“(In Pretoria) it is very bad – bad in the sense that it is available on a wide scale and because once they have used nyaope, users then move on to intravenous drugs, sharing needles and spreading infections.”
Nyaope came onto the streets five years ago. The home-grown cocktail is known to include antiretroviral tablets, rat poison, heroin, pool cleaner, milk powder and dagga.
Users are known to get hooked from the first puff.
When the effects wear off, addicts normally get desperate for another hit and resort to crimes such as stealing handbags and cellphones to feed their habit.
Addicts are found mainly in townships and on innercity streets where homeless people openly admit their addiction – they use it stave off the effects of the elements.
“These people are a very important public health issue because they are the prime example of the ills of society,” Hugo said.
Caring for them was a public imperative, but difficult because homeless people were often thrown into cells without whatever treatment they were taking.
The police, said Hugo, had shown themselves to be a big part of the problem and created confusion about their real role in fighting nyaope’s widespread abuse.
“It is a serious disgrace and concern to policemen, and they need to either stop these illegal activities or pull out,” Hugo said.
He called for the decriminalising of nyaope, saying it would remove the police from dealing in it and bar them from interrupting the process of providing treatment and care.