Warning over new deadly drug

MASERU –  THE Blue Cross Society, which fights drug and alcohol abuse this week issued a chilling warning about a deadly drug it says could have found its way into Lesotho.

The flesh-eating drug, krokodil, has already killed two people in South Africa.

Krokodil is injected into the body through a hypodermic syringe and keeps its user high for 90 minutes or two hours.
An addict may develop a skin condition that resembles the crocodile’s skin especially when they inject themselves.

According to narconon.com Krokodil gets its name from the fact that the drug causes an addict’s skin to become scaly and bumpy like a crocodile’s.
If the drug misses a vein and is injected into the flesh, that flesh will develop sores.
It is common for some body parts of addicts to decay eventually requiring amputations.

The flesh on some body parts affected by krokodil injections will rot off completely, leaving bare bone.
Introduced in Russia over a decade ago, the drug has found its way into Africa and has recently been discovered to be one of the deadliest drugs to hit South Africa.
The drug has already killed at least two addicts in Port Elizabeth.

Krokodil made headlines in South Africa in July last year when Port Elizabeth’s Herald newspaper reported that Martha Dean staged a protest outside a magistrate’s court where her 25-year-old daughter was appearing on a charge of possessing the drug. “Mr Magistrate please don’t free my daughter to die on the streets,” read the placard she was carrying.

The court ordered Bonita Dean, her daughter, to be sent to the nearby Noupoort Rehabilitation Centre.
She later escaped, made her way back to Port Elizabeth and, four months later, she died.
Krokodil is sold cheap, at only M20 a packet.

When Bonita died, she had been using 13 packs a day. The US online magazine, Time.com, calls krokodil the world’s deadliest drug.
‘Masebuoeng Majara, Blue Cross’s Campaign Coordinator, says unlike many other hard core drugs Krokodile addicts live only for six months or three years if they are stronger.
“This depends on each individual’s body type and organ strength,” Majara said.

Majara said it would be difficult to say whether the drug is already in the country.  “The channels that drug dealers smuggle in drugs and introduce them, make it hard to even monitor (krokodil’s) availability,” Majara said.

She however added that our boundaries are porous and therefore many drugs come in easily. “Like nyaope, this drug is made from the comfort of people’s homes and back-doors through mixing different over-the-counter medications,” Majara said.

Majara said the drug is a cheaper version of heroin and it is likely to hit the drug market with no mercy unless the youths look out for themselves.
According to Majara drug abuse among youths start at the age of ten to 15 years. The Step Away Treatment Centre, an anti-drug abuse organisation in South Africa, says “while Krokodil addiction in South Africa is not yet as prevalent as heroin addiction, the numbers of reported cases have begun to rise”.

South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) told the Mail & Guardian newspaper in November last year that it had four users of krokodil in its 33 centres nationally. “Three new cases have been reported in Emalahleni and two in Port Elizabeth. All three clients needed immediate medical attention due to the serious consequences of this drug,” Adrien Vermeulen, SANCA’s official, said.

The most common drugs in Lesotho are alcohol, tobacco and dagga.  “We still have other hard core drugs in the country but they are not as prevalent as these that I have mentioned,” Majara said.

“We have people who use heroin, mandrax, cocaine, ecstasy, tik and others and we have treated such patients at our centre but because these drugs are expensive they are used by certain people who can afford them,” she said.

Rose Moremoholo