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Dr Health
Illicit drugs continue to jeopardise the health and welfare of people and the stability of economic and social development.
Cannabis (dagga) or mbanje is the greatest threat as it is locally grown or smuggled in from Malawi, Mozambique and other surrounding countries.

Experts in the region estimate the prevalence of mbanje to be 7,5 percent, or nearly double the global average. Cocaine prevalence is also increasing in the coastal countries and is linked with increased use and trafficking in and out of the country.

Most of the drugs flow through Zimbabwe’s porous ports of entry in transit to other countries. On December 9, South African police intercepted 80kg of cocaine worth R23 million being smuggled from Zimbabwe at the Beitbridge Border Post. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has identified Africa as an emerging market for drug trafficking and production. The Ministry of Health and Child Care and the World Health Organisation have expressed concerns over the use of drugs in Zimbabwe.

“While it has been believed that Zimbabwe was a transit route for illicit drugs or substances, this is no longer the case as these drugs are now sold and consumed in the country,” says the ministry’s website on mental health.

Our locals are being used to transport these drugs and they are not being paid in cash. They are usually paid in drugs and these are the ones that you find being sold on the local market.

Mbanje impairs brain development, memory and one’s immune system strength while promoting airway injury, chronic bronchitis, lung inflammation and cardiovascular diseases.

It also causes anxiety, panic attacks and paranoia.

“Cocaine dependence has become a substantial public health problem, resulting in a significant number of medical, psychological and social problems, including the spread of infectious diseases (e.g. AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis), crime, violence and neonatal drug exposure,” explains the WHO’s website.

Cocaine is especially bad for the heart and has been called “the perfect heart attack drug”.

It increases one’s heart rate and blood pressure while constricting the arteries that supply blood to the heart. This commonly results in a heart attack especially in young people without heart disease.

Cocaine can also constrict blood vessels, spike cholesterol and lead to inflammation of the arteries in the brain, all causative factors in stroke.

“It is well known that cocaine can have devastating consequences, including heart attacks and sudden death, in people with or without established heart disease,” says Try Chadyiwa, director-general of the Heart Foundation of Zimbabwe.

“We are repeatedly seeing young, otherwise fit individuals suffering massive heart attacks and strokes related to cocaine use. Cocaine-induced strokes are most common in men under age 40,” Chadyiwa adds.

If you or someone you know has a substance abuse problem, see a doctor, substance abuse counsellor, or other health care professional immediately.

Addiction is a chronic illness and treatment is often ongoing and changes over time. The treatments must be tailored to each patient, including medical, mental and social problems that are related to the cause of the substance abuse.

• The writer is a doctor and an international health columnist who works in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s goals of disease prevention and control.