Buying Ecstasy Cape Town

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Buying Ecstasy Cape Town

Despite serious and sustained efforts, countless billions of dollars, and the loss of many lives, the trade in and use of illicit or illegal substances — drugs — have never consistently declined in the last hundred years. This is not to say that the features which have defined the transnational trade in illicit substances have remained stable or uniform — the structure of the trade, the consumption patterns of various substances, and the social profile of those who consume drugs has changed radically over time. In recognising this, we need then to begin thinking beyond an understanding of illicit drugs that positions them as somehow ulterior or external to the legitimate and legal, to understand that the use of drugs is symptomatic of the very conditions which make drug use illegal in the first place. This overview aims to detail how this has happened and what realistically might be done about it in the future. South Africa is ideally placed both as a conduit for the trafficking of illegal drugs, and increasingly, as a destination for consumption in its own right. The former is a product of its geographic position, well-developed infrastructure and ports, and extensive connections to other countries. The latter is a function of increasingly systemic forms of corruption, lacklustre policing efforts, weakening border control, and depreciating currency. As a forwarding hub, South Africa plays an important role in the movement of cocaine from South America to Europe and further eastwards, and helps facilitate the movement of heroin-based substances from the middle eastern region to the US. Favourable climatic conditions facilitate the production of cannabis, much of which is consumed locally but some of which is exported to the European market. Drug-related arrests are the most significant arrest type, and have remained so for the last 5 years, with , incidents occurring in , , in , and , in Moreover, there are massive disparities in the arrest and conviction levels between population groups, with cannabis-related convictions of white women standing at just 0. At the same time, the availability and affordability of the primary illegal substances continues to increase. While the nominal value of the primary drugs of use in South Africa have only decreased marginally over the course of the last decade, as a result of rapid inflation the real value of these substances has decreased greatly — methamphetamine is Despite this, many officers are aware of these challenges and of the ineffectiveness of the policing model but lack the scope and space to voice such concerns for fear of being persecuted by colleagues or for being charged with dereliction of duty. The overall result is that the regulation of illegal drugs is uncoordinated and marred by systemic obligations that preclude effective responses. South Africa is no exception — arrest rates continue to increase, rapidly in recent months, yet these are not even slightly matched by conviction rates. Moreover, recent research in the Centre of Criminology has provided empirical evidence which shows that drugs have, at least in Cape Town, over the last ten years become much more affordable. If they are more affordable, they can be accessed by a greater number of people, which also tends to increase arrest rates. Even if this inconvenient fact is ignored entirely, what cannot be escaped is the logic by which punitive drug regulation works. Policing is largely reactive and symptomatic, and fails to really engage with a question that underpins much of drug regulation itself — just why are people using drugs in the first place? In the s drugs were extremely topical for researchers, and numerous foundational studies were conducted. In a famous example, rats were put in cages fitted with a lever that would activate a cocaine dispensing machine. At times ignoring hunger, thirst, and everything else. Some rats pushed the lever until they died. The example became central to biological theories of addiction, and was widely used in illustrating the power of illegal drugs, as well as a potent justification for their prohibition. To the chagrin of many rats, the experiment was repeated across the world, and the results were easily replicable. What researchers failed to show in these experiments, however, was the context. These cages were however very small, allowing little movement or space. They were often placed under hot, bright spotlights needed to film the experiment, thus confining, heating, and asphyxiating the animals. These cages were not of the type seen in homes, but more akin to tanning beds, that were shut and locked after the rats had been forcibly been put in them. Understandably, the rats were extremely distressed, frightened, and uncomfortable — and were then offered a substance that could alleviate all of these things, repeatedly. The cage had the same lever that would dispense the same cocaine, a practice the rats had been trained to do. What the rats did was unexpected — they rarely if ever favoured the lever, invariably ignoring it entirely even though they knew they could access cocaine through it. This flew in the face of bio-pharmaceutical assumptions and indicated that environmental factors may be serious drivers for the use of drugs. The first results of the experiment were rejected by both Science and Nature , although they later were gracious in accepting other publications concerning the study. Rats and humans are of course very different, yet an opportunity for comparison did soon emerge. Heroin was easily available, and the stresses of war eroded the moral boundaries many individuals may have grown up with. When placed in the heat of battle or under the heat of lamps, both humans and rats tend to want to escape from these situations, either physically or by masking their reality. Hence, context is very important. South Africa, as is often noted, is highly unequal. Consumer-orientated narratives have simultaneously driven material understandings of success, individuality, and identity. The result has been economic exclusion, and social alienation. Recent studies including those by the Centre of Criminology have shown statistical correlates between poverty levels, unemployment, and drug use prevalence levels in communities. Hemmed in economically, locked out of development, and caged politically, drug use becomes a completely valid choice, both economically and ontologically. While many police officers work tirelessly, and are driven by merciless performance systems, they cannot be expected to solve the very problems that they are tasked with policing. Such systemic issues are difficult to solve when by their nature they are almost impossible to solve. They can be mitigated, however, as well as undermined and reduced. Portugal, for example, has decriminalised but not made legal the use of drugs. This has not solved or eliminated the use of drugs in the country. What has, however, been created is a space for dialogue, for reflection, and indeed for solutions. Importantly, the country has both created and sustained these spaces, so that when problems have emerged with their regulatory efforts, they have the resources and will to be able to change and adapt. This is especially important considering the dynamism of the transnational illegal drug economy. The resulting solutions are multiple, but a useful example is that decriminalisation has created the space in which some clinics now supply clean needles, clean smoking instruments, and guidance that reduces the harms and health risks associated with drug use. More importantly, drug users are supported in even the smallest ways; that they are accepted by communities in which they live; and their experience of care has, for many, given them a glimpse of life beyond their drug use. Whether such solutions would work in South Africa requires critical thinking. People become addicted to drugs, often because their realities are unbearable. Given just a little space, however, and the most basic of opportunities even if this means only not further excluding them , drugs not only lose their lustre, but ultimately their necessity. Such arguments are reductionist. The South African regulatory architecture intended to govern the production, distribution, and use of illegal drugs has as its basis the dated Drugs and Drugs Trafficking Act No. It is fundamentally punitive in its approach — criminalising users and prohibiting the substances — and primarily relies on the national police service and criminal justice system to enforce the legal provisions. As a result, the police and criminal justice systems are self-referentially justified as the gatekeepers of a safe and ordered society, in which drug use and users are positioned as predatory and undesirable. Ironically, such understandings frequently prevent alternative regulatory efforts from being established. Perhaps this has already been realised, as the new National Drug Master Plan makes an explicit attempt to encourage local and community-orientated interventions that are reduction- and rehabilitation-orientated. However, the plan arguably speaks the language of reform but continues to empower the criminal justice system as the primary port of call with regards to the regulation of the use and users of illegal substances. Strategies and frameworks that have at root the principle of harm reduction, taken in its broadest sense, can however be used in the formulation of an alternative, less damaging approach. Such an approach need not be framed in terms of legalisation as South African society is perhaps too conservative for this at present , but could rather take the form of a hiatus of the most harmful to society of government responses. These include, for instance, the ongoing demand for the SAPS to arrest close to , people per year on drug related offences, the vast majority of which are classified as users rather than dealers. As things stand, such harms are set to only increase, as the SAPS strategic plan for the next five years calls for further increases in arrest numbers. Simply assessing the utility of such a strategy, and focussing police efforts towards the supply of illegal drugs rather than their use, can in this context thus be considered a form of harm reduction. Another form of harm reduction in the South African context is perhaps more straightforward to implement, namely changing the way in which drugs and drug use are spoken about in general discourse and the public media, which can help reduce harms that use these narratives as a justification for the use of force and punishment. There are a number of useful resources available online, some of which speak to drugs and their use more generally and some of which speak to the South African context specifically. For resources relating to further information on treatment and dealing with addiction in South Africa, the SACENDU project provides an excellent overview of the current situation, updated twice a year. The Western Cape Government has released a useful pamphlet covering a range of issues relating to drugs, which is especially useful at a local level. Toggle navigation. Who is it for? Home Understand The need for a different approach to policing illegal drugs in South Africa. Picture: Flickr. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse this website you accept the use of cookies.

Different types of drugs in the Western Cape

Buying Ecstasy Cape Town

The word is used in tsotsitaal , the creole, urban dialect that emerged during the colonial and apartheid eras of segregation. It was around this time that cannabis smugglers supplying the gold mining compounds and nearby settlements began to diversify into pharmaceuticals. One drug of choice was methaqualone, also known as Mandrax. In Snyman headed a governmental commission that bore his name. The anecdote may be read as a metaphor of grassroots challenges to apartheid statecraft. Historical research can offer critical perspectives that help make sense of current dilemmas. Nevertheless complex understandings of the past are key to sound decision-making in both legislative and medical practices. As was pointed out by organisers of a recent history conference held in Shanghai:. After all, experts offering definitive accounts of psychoactive substances, vacillating bureaucrats and politicians, unyielding moralists and fickle consumers are all among the figures familiar to historians from other periods and a range of places. But drugs history scholarship from and about the global South grows ever more vibrant. Histories of cocaine in South America and Asia , cannabis in Mexico and Nigeria , khat in Kenya and the politics of drug use in Iran are a few examples. Histories of drugs in Africa are of growing interest worldwide. Since the late 19th century especially, global flows of neurochemical substances and products have deepened the entanglements of consumers in Africa in networks of legal and illicit drugs production, flow, profit and risk. Historical perspectives bring to light the social processes through which bioactive plants, manufactured pharmaceuticals and techniques of treatment come to figure in diverse and changing human experiences. In the 20th century, the contexts of colonialism, apartheid and democracy shaped drug control, provision and regulation in South Africa. Today media reports on drug issues in this country often invite panicked responses. Journalism frequently reproduces the hyperbole and moralism that have — for over a century — shaped public opinion here. Narratives that sometimes exaggerate or even mislead the public about new forms of substances, coming across borders, or the behaviours they allegedly cause, have had very negative consequences. These have included fuelling xenophobic sentiments as well as the stigma attached to people using drugs. At the same time, there are hopeful signs of change in public opinion. And there are positive indications of a quest for evidence-based policy and treatment solutions. An example is the case of harm reduction approaches to opioid addiction. The promises of pharmaceutical technologies are evident. So are the challenges. This is the first article in a series on drug regimes in southern Africa. They are based on research done for a special edition for the South African Historical Journal. Read the full paper over here. Edition: Available editions Europe. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Events More events.

Buying Ecstasy Cape Town