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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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"Khat" trade livens up sleepy Kenyan border town
#7660830 - 11/20/07 09:52 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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"Khat" trade livens up sleepy Kenyan border town November 20, 2007 - Reuters
MANDERA, Kenya (Reuters) - It's barely 8 a.m. in Mandera, but already it feels like late afternoon.
Men lounge around as the sun starts to bake the ground, children kick stones on the slow path to school, and goats nibble rubbish in an empty square of the north Kenyan town.
Suddenly, a cry -- "It's here" -- shatters the stupor and a pickup truck laden with sacks comes roaring into the square, transforming the scene in an instant.
The vehicle has come from the faraway highland town of Meru, speeding through the night to bring the prized commodity of khat -- a shrub chewed as a mild stimulant -- from the green foothills of Mount Kenya.
In the arid northeast of Kenya, populated by ethnic Somalis, and across the border in neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia itself, khat is hugely popular among men, though frowned upon by some for its effects.
Banned in the United States and some other countries, khat's active ingredient is cathinone, an amphetamine-like substance that can produce a euphoric state for up to 24 hours.
So as the vehicle bumps into Mandera -- its red-eyed driver under the multiple effects of khat-chewing, exhaustion from the all-night drive, and a well-founded terror of bandits on the road -- an industry springs into life.
Bosses emerge to supervise the unloading of dozens of sacks full of khat. Clerks and agents tick boxes as they distribute to local sellers. Somali and Ethiopian traders prepare to take batches across borders just a few kilometres away.
Khat only stays fresh for about 48 hours, so with 12 hours already gone on the road from Meru, time is of the essence.
"Most of the town lives off this trade, you know. You see this agent? He has become a small Bill Gates of the Third World -- all thanks to khat!" laughs Abdusirat Atow, a local teacher and self-styled "major consumer".
He may be exaggerating, but there is no doubting the importance of khat to Mandera: a town abandoned by development but with a trading advantage from being right in the point of a triangle where Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet.
Every morning, three to five vehicles come along the pot-holed, sandy road to Mandera, each bearing about 170 sacks of newly picked Meru khat, said to be the best variety in the world.
Agents can earn about 45,000 shillings ($680) a month -- a relative fortune in one of Kenya's poorest parts.
A cross-border trader says he makes a mere 30 shillings ($0.45), his profit cut by bribes to guards. But a street-seller in Mandera can earn 200 shillings ($3) a day. That's enough for one of them, Araba Mohamed, to just about feed her 10 children.
She hopes, however, that her boys will eschew khat, or "miraa" at is known in Swahili.
"I do this to care for my children. I am not interested in chewing myself," the widow said, sat beside a sack of khat in a roadside hut. "And I certainly don't want my children to."
"JUST LIKE COFFEE"
The effects of khat -- the red or watery eyes of a drunk man, the sleepy stupor or hyper-active state, the stained teeth -- are everywhere to be seen in Mandera.
The men, many unemployed or former nomadic farmers who have lost livestock in droughts, chew the twigs and leaves together in the afternoons and evenings inside homes and round local stalls.
"It's not a big drug," insists local artist Mohamed Mude Sheikh. "I get pleasure from it. It activates my mind. It keeps stress away. And in the morning, it can even give you sexual appetite. After its effect, you just sleep. Easy."
Across the Horn of Africa, but particularly among ethnic Somalis, it is part of male ritual and catalyst for discussion.
While waxing lyrical about khat, teacher Atow nevertheless says he warns his pupils off it: "It can destroy mental development. We teach them that it is like heroin."
And not surprisingly in the macho local culture, women caught chewing are seen as outcasts. "If a man is a drunkard and a woman is a drunkard, who is in the wrong? It's obvious," adds Atow.
Businessman Ibrahim Omar Sheikh, 45, is one of the town's biggest dealers, and is proud of the 24 years' trading that has enabled him to educate seven children.
Sitting on a reed mat as he awaits the arrival of the day's first pickup from Meru, he gives a potted history of the trade, noting, with furrowed brow, how cross-border business dipped last year when hardline Islamists ran south Somalia.
The sharia courts' movement banned khat and whipped its consumers during their six-month rule.
But after the Islamists were toppled at the end of 2006, the plant was straight back on the streets within days.
Sheikh insists khat is not a drug, but he has nevertheless given up chewing long ago to ensure his mind is sharp for business. "It's just like your Nescafe coffee," he says, as an assistant proffers a twig for a curious reporter.
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akb112211
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Registered: 09/10/07
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Re: "Khat" trade livens up sleepy Kenyan border town [Re: veggie]
#7661537 - 11/21/07 03:02 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Good article! I noticed that the reporter does a good job at down playing the effects of khat. I imagine the affect it has on the Muslim(and non-Muslim) communities in Africa and the mid-east are not unlike the affects that the cocaine trade has on Colombia. I'm sure its on a much smaller scale due to the lesser demand.
I ordered some Khat online a little over a year ago. I payed about £15 for two bundles, shipping included. Steep, I know. But, I was dying to try it. Even though quick delivery was promised, it took a few weeks. The reason, they said was due to Ramadan. So it arrived finally, packaged, wrapped in banana leaves. I wasn't really keen on chewing it, because it didn't really seem fresh. Also, maybe I was paranoid, but I just didn't want to put a raw leaf in my mouth that was or wasn't clean. I did try a small amount to taste it. It was similar to betel nut in the way it saps the moisture out of your mouth. Its incredibly bitter as well. In the end, I decided to make some tea out of it. It was awful, and its effect wasn't much different effect than a cup of coffee. So, in the end, I decided to boil it down and make an extract of it. I mixed it in with some of the plant matter(like a salvia extract). From time to time, I will roll it like a cigarette or a joint. Once again, effects are mild to nothing at all. The smoke is incredibly pleasant. Its not harsh, as a matter of fact, you can barely even feel the smoke entering or leaving your body. The extract has sort of a pleasant, but sickly sweet cherry and tobacco smell.
So, why did I write this post? Well, I felt it was on topic. Also, just to mention that there is little to no point in chewing khat anywhere but Africa or maybe London(or another heavily Muslim populated area with an established trade route). I just find it hard to believe that the khat will arrive fresh from the tree into one's hands in under 2 or 3 days. Maybe thats just my naivete. The traders know that it degrades fast and need to supply it immediately. They've been chewing this for hundreds or maybe thousands of years.
I also find it incredibly amusing that it is illegal in America. Most people have no idea what khat is. Why is it illegal? I'm sure there are numerous implications for its status.(links to "terror organisations", similar chemical structure to meth and amphetamine, fear of a khat "epidemic", etc. etc.) Well, just count on the media to draw tons of attention to it, thereby increasing awareness and curiosity. They hypothetically can (and most times do) create the demand. Ok, enough from me. gonna have a smoke...
-------------------- "There never was and never will be, Nor is there now, The wholly criticized Or the wholly approved"
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: "Khat" trade livens up sleepy Kenyan border town [Re: akb112211]
#7661606 - 11/21/07 05:03 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
akb112211 said: Good article! I noticed that the reporter does a good job at down playing the effects of khat. I imagine the affect it has on the Muslim(and non-Muslim) communities in Africa and the mid-east are not unlike the affects that the cocaine trade has on Colombia. I'm sure its on a much smaller scale due to the lesser demand.
I ordered some Khat online a little over a year ago. I payed about £15 for two bundles, shipping included. Steep, I know. But, I was dying to try it. Even though quick delivery was promised, it took a few weeks. The reason, they said was due to Ramadan. So it arrived finally, packaged, wrapped in banana leaves. I wasn't really keen on chewing it, because it didn't really seem fresh. Also, maybe I was paranoid, but I just didn't want to put a raw leaf in my mouth that was or wasn't clean. I did try a small amount to taste it. It was similar to betel nut in the way it saps the moisture out of your mouth. Its incredibly bitter as well. In the end, I decided to make some tea out of it. It was awful, and its effect wasn't much different effect than a cup of coffee. So, in the end, I decided to boil it down and make an extract of it. I mixed it in with some of the plant matter(like a salvia extract). From time to time, I will roll it like a cigarette or a joint. Once again, effects are mild to nothing at all. The smoke is incredibly pleasant. Its not harsh, as a matter of fact, you can barely even feel the smoke entering or leaving your body. The extract has sort of a pleasant, but sickly sweet cherry and tobacco smell.
So, why did I write this post? Well, I felt it was on topic. Also, just to mention that there is little to no point in chewing khat anywhere but Africa or maybe London(or another heavily Muslim populated area with an established trade route). I just find it hard to believe that the khat will arrive fresh from the tree into one's hands in under 2 or 3 days. Maybe thats just my naivete. The traders know that it degrades fast and need to supply it immediately. They've been chewing this for hundreds or maybe thousands of years.
I also find it incredibly amusing that it is illegal in America. Most people have no idea what khat is. Why is it illegal? I'm sure there are numerous implications for its status.(links to "terror organisations", similar chemical structure to meth and amphetamine, fear of a khat "epidemic", etc. etc.) Well, just count on the media to draw tons of attention to it, thereby increasing awareness and curiosity. They hypothetically can (and most times do) create the demand. Ok, enough from me. gonna have a smoke...
would surely be illegal even without the scheduling...
As I believe the anaolouge act places anolougues in the same schedule as the similar scheduled drug. As I recall, cathinone is the keto amephetamine, so it would be schedule II
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a_guy_named_ai
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Registered: 09/24/07
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Re: "Khat" trade livens up sleepy Kenyan border town [Re: veggie]
#7662814 - 11/21/07 12:44 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Perhaps folgers and nescafe have something to do with it's being illegal.
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