Kenya’s heroin problem exposed: Brown Sugar, Smack & Syringes

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Life as a Heroin Addict

Most IDUs are quite thin because they spend almost all of their income on heroin, to the detriment of their own and their family’s needs, including school fees, rent and food. They have an almost vacuous look in their eyes. They can talk about family, shooting up, or being sex trafficked with the emotion we would use when ordering a hamburgerat McDonald’s. Only when they ask you for money do they perk up a bit.

Alexis speaks openly when she describes the things she and her colleagues are willing to do to get the next sachet of heroin. She claims that other sex workers at the coast look down upon the addicts because they wear torn, dirty clothing, they rarely bathe, and they don’t take care of themselves. The customers also treat them with disdain, often they know that if one woman won’t agree, another certainly will. According to Alexis,
it is common for men to beat them, engage in brutal sexual acts, leave without paying and refuse to use condoms. And the women usually accept whatever is demanded in their quest to get some fast cash before withdrawal symptoms set in.

Heroin withdrawal is a miserable experience, although usually not life-threatening, and can start as soon as five to six hours after the last hit. Symptoms include abdominal pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, chills, joint pains, gooseflesh, dilated pupils and dry mouth. Once the person injects, these symptoms disappear. So the IDU becomes obsessed with getting that next hit as quickly as possible.

As a result, petty theft is common. When a heroin addict is in such a state, he or she will steal, sell, or do whatever it takes to get the drug. Joseph* is a 28-year-old addict who has been using heroin for the last six years. He wears denim shorts and a white Billabong t-shirt that exposes track marks on his arms from many years of heroin injection. He says he has previously stolen three mobile phones and a radio from his friends to pay for heroin. He makes money driving a boat to take tourists to the coral reefs, but he doesn’t steal from them. The reason, he says, is that, “If I steal from them, they won’t come again. That’s why I steal from my friends.”

Alex used to snatch gold necklaces from ladies’ necks to sell to local black market dealers. He was caught twice, which he says was a (temporarily) sobering experience. According to Alex, “In the beginning, I found it [the drug use] interesting and attractive but later on, I didn’t because it was so disgusting. At the end of the day, you’re not satisfied. The more you use, the more you end up with nothing. It’s risky and it’s scary. You wake up the next morning, and are teetering, so you find someone else’s needle, you rinse it with water, and you use it. So that was not good.”

“Kenya’s heroin problem exposed: Brown Sugar, Smack & Syringes” continues tomorrow...

Originally published in the October 2012 issue of Destination Magazine, authored by Jill Craig.

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