Users crush the ARVs and smoke them with a mixture of rat poison, detergent and marijuana to get high. The powder is said to be so addictive that users are hooked within days. "If I don't smoke it, I get pains and I can't sleep until I get some more," 31-year-old Jomo said, his eyes red and glazed after a few deep drags on a joint. He and his fellow whoonga addicts, huddled in the grounds of a church in one of Durban's side streets, smoke up to 30 "packets" of the drug every day at a cost of almost $160.
"I just rob people to get the money. I don't have a job, this is all I do," Jomo said, rolling another joint. "I sell my body to get whoonga," a young woman said with a shrug. In the back streets of Durban, whoonga dealers tout the powder for $5 per packet. The highly toxic drug has been blamed for the deaths of scores of addicts across South Africa over the past year and has fueled a spate of thefts of AIDS medication.
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In the township of Umlazi, near Durban, officials say dozens of patients are being robbed of their anti-retroviral drugs every week. However, the country's Treatment Action Campaign, an AIDS lobbying group, has described the belief that the drugs have recreational value as a "myth." Group spokeswoman Caroline Nenguke said: "We are not even convinced that whoonga contains ARVs. The dealers just say it does."
2 comments:
On the bright side, less addicts later on.
Speaking of rat poison, warfarin was originally used as a rat poison until something happened such as a sailor tried to kill himself with it. He miraculously survived but during his hospital stay the doctors noted his blood was critically thinned by his ordeal. But yeah, don't do that, it's what's technically known as retarded.
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