By Diana Wanyonyi
Mombasa County, Kenya: Zaituni Opiyo has been abusing drugs for four years now; she says she started using drugs at the tender age of 16 years while she was staying in Nairobi.
Her addiction worsened when she traveled to Mombasa after she secured a job in one of the four-star hotels.
She said that her addiction worsened after she joined a bad group of youths who were chewing Khat, smoking bhang, and using heroin. She was later laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. This even worsened because she is now jobless and she was the breadwinner for her family back at home in Nyanza province.
“I am very stressed, my hideout is always here in a den in Mtopanga, I am very broke and that is why I will smoke or inject myself with any drugs I get to get high.” She said.
A recent report from the National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse –NACADA shows that there is no evidence of fentanyl use in the coastal region as it emerges that drug users have resorted to the use of veterinary drugs to boost euphoria from heroin use.
A month ago videos were doing rounds on social media that were brought to the attention of the Authority by members of the public of supposed users of an unidentified drug that made them appear to behave like zombies.
These put on toes authority to research and investigate to establish if the drug could be Fentanyl.
Addressing the media in Mombasa, acting CEO of the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) Prof. John Muteti said that during their investigations, 20 samples were collected from drug users in Mombasa, Kwale, and Kilifi counties and handed over to the Government Chemist for analysis and identification.
“For this preliminary activity, we have also discovered that zombie-like symptoms among drug users can be attributed to either one or a combination of the following factors, high dosage of heroin, a combination of heroin and with high dosage of prescription drugs, especially Diazepam and Amitriptyline. Diazepam and Amitriptyline are drugs which you can buy over the counter and we suspect that some people may be buying these drugs by mixing them with heroin.” He said.
He added, “We also suspect that there may be a combination of methadone with heroin, high dosage of such would also bring this kind of behavior. Mono use or a combination of heroin and Xylazine a veterinary animal tranquilizer, and if Xylazine is mixed with heroin it might bring this kind of behavior which we have also seen.
He further observed that from the findings there are no reported Fentanyl cases in the country.
“It’s evident that drug users are resulting in the use of multiple substances, especially prescription drugs to complement the available heroin whose potency has over time been proven to be reducing. Of greater concern, however, is the discovery that some injecting drug users could be attempting to use animal tranquilizers as an alternative to heroin or an agent to enhance and prolong its potency,” said Prof. Muteti.
Prof. Muteti says there is an urgent need to institute measures to regulate and control the use of veterinary drugs in the illegal market.
On his part, Reachout Centre Trust director Taib Abdulrahman echoed Muteti’s sentiments, acknowledging that poly use of drugs has now become the norm among many drug users.
“People ought to use prescribed medication to reach the level of euphoria that increases drug use. So poly drug use gives you an alternative to being able to use different kinds of drugs to be on that euphoric way and also it depends on which drugs you are using, If you are using a depressant and you are putting a stimulant, there are effects into that, you will find it high but it will crush within the high you get.” Said Abdulrahman.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha, said crack down on drugs and substance use in the coastal region continues.
