Confessions of a codeine junkie
Lawrence Seretse | Friday February 7, 2014 16:04
Nineteen year-old Mompati has just completed his Form Three at Bokamoso Junior School and he performed fairly well. He lives in Gaborone's high-density neighbourhood of Bontleng with his older brother Phemelo, a varsity dropout who has no job and already feels like a huge disappointment to his family.
Mompati has just finished smoking the last of the blunt which was circulating among his four friends. To my knowledge, he also took his daily fix and looks at his friends in a daze, his body slumping inside the boot of the old scrap car.
Mompati is one of many youths who use Histalix, Bennylin or Broncleer cough syrups that are now styled 'feel good drugs.' Codeine, one of the ingredients in Histalix, is a narcotic with effects similar to morphine's. 'I feel like Superman every time I am high,' he says. 'I don't need to have a lot of money to get high and enjoy myself. We have been on cough syrup for two years now, and it is good because at school no one suspected anything.”
Mompati says before he started to use the cough syrups, his neighbour dealt in marijuana for years in the street. However, it was easy to get caught at school when high on marijuana. “You see, the highs are different, and weed made me hyperhigh while Broncho made me relax and very calm,' Mompati reveals.
He confesses that he can no longer afford to buy a bottle of beer, at least each time he craves one, because prices are too high. Over the counter, a small bottle of Broncleer costs P14 and he points out that four of the bottles are enough to drown his sorrows for a whole weekend. Asked why not Chibuku instead of codeine since Chibuku is also fairly cheap, Mompati responds:
'Are you crazy? That stuff is not cool. Besides it's for them old folks and I cannot be seen holding that stuff. I'd lose my girls!'
He explains that it is much easier to 'smuggle' the cough medicine into school since it is not illegal. 'You see a bunch of schoolboys with bulging pockets, thanks to bottles of Broncleer and Bennylin. We mix the syrups with Sprite and get high all day long.' He finishes making another concoction and graciously offers me a swig, which I gratefully turn down. Broncleer is available in pharmacies at between P10 and P15 a bottle. Although some pharmacies around Gaborone sell the medicine only to people with doctors’ prescriptions, a pharmacist at Fairgrounds Pharmacy explains that the medication can be sold both over-the-counter and on prescription.
'Some medications such as sleeping tablets are exclusively prescribed, meaning that I cannot sell you them without a prescription,' says the pharmacist. But other medicines, cough syrups like Borstol included, can be bought over the counter anywhere, even in supermarkets. Medications like Broncleer can only be sold by a pharmacist.” The pharmacist, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he is aware of the growing abuse of Broncleer for intoxication. He believes pharmacists try to control sale of the medicine by selling not more than two bottles to an individual, especially people without a prescription. However, he says, the problem is that Broncleer is cheaper than other syrups.
While licensed pharmacies are obliged by their ethics ato look out for consumers who may buy the medication for abuse, there is a growing trend of black market traders who sell the medication. At Gaborone Bus Station, a number of the informal traders whose tables are laden with such commonplace items as airtime, bananas and sweets also conceal considerable quantities of various medicines under the tables. At the bus rank, a 100ml bottle of Broncleer sells for P15 and is known as “Ngoma.” This week, a Mmegi team was able to buy a bottle of Ngoma there in broad daylight without any difficulty.
The relative affordability of the medication in relation to other drugs has made Broncleer a hit with traders and customers alike. At P15 a bottle, Broncleer is also more affordable than alcohol whose prices have spiked since the introduction of a levy.
In his first year as president in 2008, Ian Khama introduced a 30 percent alcohol levy as a means of fighting what he considered to be alcohol abuse among Batswana. In addition to slapping the hefty surcharge, shorter hours and more stringent regulations were imposed on bars and nightclubs. While defiant consumers continued to buy alcohol in high volumes the government raised the stakes by escalating the alcohol levy ending at the current 50 percent alcohol levy that was imposed in 2013.
In the meantime, a search for hooch and other affordable alternatives was underway everywhere, including at the unlikely places of healing that pharmacies are. But influence of Western media and celebs has also contributed considerably to the use of cough medicines as drugs on which to get a 'high.' In 2013, hip-hop star Lil Wayne was hospitalised after he experienced seizures that were attributed to abuse of cough syrups. Codeine has long been the intoxicant of choice on America’s southern hip-hop scene, and now its influence is spreading with teenagers who follow the hip hop star, picking up the habits as well.
As for rapper Lil Wayne, media reports say exhaustion and overwork were to blame for his illness, while 'insiders' are reporting that his hospitalisation was a direct result of his addiction to a potent cough syrup mixture called, variously, Sizzurp, Purple Drink and Lean.
Unlike, Bron Cleer and Histalix, Sizzurp is not over-the-counter stuff, but is a combination of prescription-strength cough syrup containing codeine and, often, the anti-allergy drug promethazine, with soft drinks such as Sprite and Mountain Dew, usually drunk from a styrofoam cup. Some users will drop in a lollipop to mask its medicinal taste. And, while drug experts say its use is now widespread, what is also certain is that the combination originated in Houston, Texas, and is indelibly linked with that city’s rich hip-hop culture. Now it is worldwide, researchers have noted.
Mompati says he is now uncertain of what the future holds for him. 'I cannot stop using drugs, and I do not want to go back to school,' he notes. 'I can't see a future for myself unless I get a job so I can help look after my brother.”
However, his brother Phemelo says he is aware of Mompati’s dependence on codeine. He says he also 'kicks' it occasionally when he is flat broke. Phemelo prefers weed and calls it a spiritual herb.
He also believes that the government and other stakeholders should establish freely accessible rehabilitation centres for people who use drugs. 'It's the system,' Phemelo says. “We never would have imagined that we could end up being hooked on these drugs. We now find ourselves stuck in this ‘outcast’ society. You are surrounded by drug dealers and addicts and you have to fit in. The only way to find pleasure and forget our troubles is through heavy intoxication.”
At this stage, Phemelp is barely audible over Mompati’s sudden heavy snores, his scrawny body slumping far inside the rusty Cressida scrap.
What health experts say
Health experts say codeine can cause respiratory depression, but promethazine is more worrying. Combined with alcohol or overused, promethazine can cause central nervous system depression with symptoms including cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.
The side effects are lack of co-ordination, mental confusion, visual hallucinations, blurred vision, dry mouth, urinary hesitancy and thickening of secretion. Other side effects are constipation, dizziness and hyperactivity, paranoia and out-of-body experience.
When the body absorbs codeine, it converts it into morphine, which is a mild painkiller. Codeine has cough suppressant actions.