cannabisnews.com: Yemeni Drug Comes To America





Yemeni Drug Comes To America
Posted by FoM on April 24, 2000 at 07:45:44 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: New York Times
In a tiny Brooklyn cafe with faded tourist posters of Yemen in the window, the mood at a table of Arab men darkens when the topic turns to khat. ``In my country, khat is easy,'' says Abdul Rahman. ``Everybody, the president, they have it. ... I don't understand this.'' 
Rahman, a 26-year-old Yemeni, was working at the cafe on the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha when narcotics officers walked in and busted three men in the basement on drug charges. Raids at the Blue Province Restaurant and two other Yemeni businesses last month had nothing to do with cocaine, designer drugs or even marijuana. Instead, the target was people selling khat, a stimulating leaf that many in the Middle East chew like tobacco and consider no more sinister than a double espresso. Rahman and other Arab immigrants in Brooklyn say that before the raids they had no idea khat (pronounced cot) was illegal here. ``The community has been consuming khat for a long time -- this is not a secret,'' said Ali Sharaf, a member of a Yemen-American student group. ``I'm surprised that now it's a big thing.'' Back home in Yemen, khat chewing is commonplace, often a daily practice. It's the same in Djibouti and Somalia on the Horn of Africa. U.S. authorities got interested when khat appeared more and more in Arab communities around the country. ``This is a serious problem,'' said New York City police spokesman Sgt. Andrew McInnis. ``We responded to complaints about the negative impact on the community.'' Authorities allege the suspects arrested in the raids were breaking laws banning possession of cathonine -- the key ingredient in freshly cut khat leaves, which look like basil. The federal government lists cathonine as a ``Schedule I'' controlled substance, the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. Khat chewers say it gives them energy and a feeling of euphoria. But the Drug Enforcement Administration maintains that khat is psychologically addictive. Compulsive use, the DEA says, ``may result in manic behavior with grandiose delusions or in a paranoid type of illness, sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.'' Khat is believed to have been traded as a commodity even before coffee. Its use originated in Ethiopia, then spread through east Africa and parts of the Middle East. Muslim legend has it that its stimulant effect enabled all-night prayer vigils. But now some people in Yemen are worried that too many government workers were wasting away their afternoons -- and their income -- chewing khat. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has tried to set an example by announcing he will only chew on weekends. The United Nations estimates that in Djibouti, 98 percent of the men use khat to numb the pain of poverty. Somalian warlords dole it out to soldiers as part of daily rations. In the United States, the market for khat appears to be limited and nonviolent. Customs officers confiscated 49,000 pounds of khat in fiscal 1999, compared to 1.2 million pounds of marijuana. Most of the khat was seized at the New York area airports. Agents who caught a whiff of the plant's pungent smell during random inspections last year found a total of 30,500 pounds stashed in luggage, mainly in amounts so small the couriers weren't prosecuted. Seizures also have been made at Denver's airport, on the New Jersey Turnpike and in Minneapolis. In San Jose, Calif., a Yemeni man was arrested in 1998 for growing 1,000 plants in what was described as the first khat plantation in the United States. Still, khat ``is probably not one of our priorities,'' said New York DEA spokesman Stan Skowronski. Police launched the Brooklyn investigation about six months ago after learning that street dealers were peddling khat around Arab storefronts. The going price was $40 for a day's supply. On March 15, an undercover officer bought khat at a Yemeni restaurant. The next day, the Islamic holiday, officers found customers lined up for refrigerated khat being cut up and sold at the Blue Province Restaurant, authorities said. By the time officers wrapped up the investigation, they had seized about 240 pounds of khat and arrested eight people. The defendants face up to seven years in prison if convicted of felony drug charges. James Palumbo, attorney for one suspect, said his client was shocked to find himself the target of a drug bust. The community, he added, doesn't need to see anyone go to jail to be scared straight. ``These are law-abiding people,'' he said. ``The cops have made their point.'' One young Yemenite, who identified himself only as Jamil, admitted buying khat at the Blue Province only an hour before the police raid. ``When you're around (khat), you've got to have it,'' Jamil said. ``But it's bad for us. We need to stop it.'' Published: April 23, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company Related Articles: Khat-Chewing Yemen Told to Break Ancient Habit http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2939.shtmlAfrican Drug Poses Problems for Authoritieshttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2123.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by jj amigo on August 10, 2001 at 14:23:47 PT
qat
Khat is legal in UK, Netherland, France and many other countries. So since when do we clasified khat in same category as Heroine and Ecstacy. 
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Comment #8 posted by ferruccio on June 15, 2001 at 16:47:13 PT:
?khat
what's the botanic name of this plant and where does it live? cheers in adv.
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Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on April 24, 2000 at 17:30:30 PT:
Hearsay
Authorities allege the suspects arrested in the raids were breaking laws banning possession of cathonine -- the key ingredient in freshly cut khat leaves, which look like basil. The federal government lists cathonine as a ``Schedule I'' controlled substance, the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. Under what scientific research did they base this? What studies were performed? Who did them? When? Where? Does the AMA have a learned opinion on all this?Compulsive use, the DEA says, ``may result in manic behavior with grandiose delusions or in a paranoid type of illness, sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.'' Funny, I rather thought that the very same symptoms described here were displayed by most DrugWarriors when they are challenged in their beliefs by those who demand facts rather than myths. (Surely by now, if this were such a public health threat, we would have heard of khat-chewing individuals running amok a la the Reefer Madness tales of the 1930's, slaughtering all in their path who might be in the way of their next fix. What else could possibly justify this sudden interest in the health of Arab immigrants - besides a not too cleverly disguised bigotry coupled with paranoia? Perhaps the purblind authorities are thinking about transposing the partial myth of the hashishins onto the khat chewers; after all they did roughly the same thing with cannabis, LSD,PCP, etc. Anything to extend a bureaucratic empire, even outright lies)This is what happens when bureaucrats make policy concerning what is essentially a medical matter. We should demand to see the credentials of those in the DEA who have deigned to practice medicine without licenses, and accord them the same treatment any common quack might receive for doing the same thing. 
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Comment #6 posted by Wabo on April 24, 2000 at 16:55:01 PT
Hmmm
>Compulsive use, the DEA says, ``may result in manic behavior with grandiose delusions or in a paranoid type of illness,sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.'I think Barry must chew wads of this stuff.Seriously, Tim is right. This is a pre-emptive move by the feds to illegalize an aspect of Arab culture. Makes wholesale arrest members of this ethnic group later much easier to sell to the public. 
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Comment #5 posted by Dave in Florida on April 24, 2000 at 16:31:57 PT
psychologically addictive
>But the Drug Enforcement Administration maintains that khat is psychologically addictive. CocaCola and coffee contains a physicaly addictive drug. I am personally addicted to caffine. Big Deal>The federal government lists cathonine as a ``Schedule I''controlled substance, the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy. And marajauna, which I am NOT addicted to.Better make a special divison of the DEA , the "caffine police" 
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Comment #4 posted by Tim Stone on April 24, 2000 at 14:59:25 PT
Just in Case
The usual historical progression for drug warriors:1) Demonize a drug that is associated with non-white, non-Christian immigrant groups, the better to have a legal lever to use to control those immigrant groups. 2) Criminalize a newly appearing drug preemptively (as happened with cannabis back when), not because it is a problem, or even is likely to become a problem, but just in case. Better criminalize it now, before it's a problem, than wait until it actually is. Then when problems do emerge due solely to the prohibitionist status of the drug, claim it always was a problem and pat youself on the back for having the foresight to criminalize it before it became a problem (Never mind the inconsistency.). Another typical historical example of nark-think. 
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Comment #3 posted by mungojelly on April 24, 2000 at 11:06:40 PT:
how many people can they offend?
"We responded to complaints about the negative impact on the community." -- IOW, you suddenly decided that you wanted to interfere with yet another millenia-long tradition. No discussion with the community that you are about to try to arrest. No discussion with the public at large. Just pretend that there was never a discussion to be had. These people were selling their drug out in the open. As far as they knew, it was legal. But when the drug warriors suddenly decided that khat was yet another devil's weed, did they bother to tell anyone of their decision? Did they put out any sort of public notice? No, they just went & arrested people. That is the only way they know to deal with problems. (When faced with open criticism, the response of our congress was to muse about whether it might be possible to arrest Mr. Soros for his airing of the issues.) Why start with arrests? Why not start with, if not public hearings on the issue, at least warning this community that their drug of choice has suddenly become evil? Because once you've started arresting people, it's a lot easier to quiet dissent. None of those khat chewers are going to be loudly speaking up about their participation in this tradition for very much longer. 
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Comment #2 posted by Alexandre Oeming on April 24, 2000 at 10:31:14 PT:
Welcome
>``The community has been consuming khat for a long time -- this is not a secret,'' said Ali Sharaf, a member of a Yemen-American student group. ``I'm surprisedthat now it's a big thing.''Welcome to amerikkka, land of oppression and home of the hypocritical. Better get out before you get brainwashed, too. You might someday be telling your kids about the "dangers" of the psychological addiction to khat. Oh, and watch out for the boogieman.
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Comment #1 posted by legalizeit on April 24, 2000 at 08:21:38 PT
Ridiculous!
The government is on a no-holds-barred campaign to make anything other than alcohol and tobacco illegal, regardless of the substances' harm or past responsible use.>Compulsive use, the DEA says, ``may result in manic behavior with grandiose delusions or in a paranoid type of illness, sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.'' Doesn't compulsive overuse of ALCOHOL cause these exact same effects (delirium tremens)?(Oh, right, alcohol is not a drug.)>In the United States, the market for khat appears to be limited and nonviolentThen why bother? It's a PLANT for crap's sake, as pot is!>khat ``is probably not one of our priorities,'' said New York DEA spokesman Stan Skowronski. Yeah. Top priority is the most hideous, lethal, violence-inciting drug in the universe - marijuana.I'll bet those people wish they were back in Yemen, where at least they have intoxicant choices other than alcohol and tobacco.
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