Policy Bizarre Drug Market in South Africa

[RUC4]

Bizarre Drug Market in South Africa

excerpts:

Meth has spread like wildfire across South Africa, sold under the street name "tik" and concentrated heavily in poor and marginalized communities. But unlike in the US, Europe, or Japan, where amphetamines have a decades-long history, tik in South Africa is a relatively new drug, only gaining widespread popularity over the past 20 years

Fisherman in South Africa have been hunting abalone and selling it to the Chinese for decades, however with apartheid, the Chinese started paying in chemicals to make meth. The fisherman became drug dealers because they had to get paid for their abalone. After a while, abalone was out of the picture and the drug trade of meth began. Before that came the reintroduction of smokable quaaludes flooded the masses allegedly due to an apartheid agenda. The quaaludes are smoked with marijuana. It's said the reintroduction of MDMA and quaaludes was to destabilize communities.

 

[RUC4]

it's interesting to me because it reminds me of crack introduction to already struggling communities. the government there seems to look the other way about some things and focus on some other things just like it is here.

the VICE series is full of interesting videos like this.

 

[AlsoTapered]

I was under the impression that the Chinese paid for abalone in the chemicals to make Mandrax? After all, Mandrax is SAs number 1 drug problem.

Now (pseudo)ephedrine ARE controlled in China so what are they selling to make meth? RP & I? I ask because I don't know.

 

[Imaginarium]

it's interesting to me because it reminds me of crack introduction to already struggling communities. the government there seems to look the other way about some things and focus on some other things just like it is here.

The quaaludes are smoked with marijuana. It's said the reintroduction of MDMA and quaaludes was to destabilize communities.

Yup, during the apartheid era of international political and economic isolation was alleged to have been the result of a targeted state chemical and biological weapons programme undertaken in the 1980s by the South African government. This programme allegedly involved the synthesis and distribution of supplying methaqualone in an effort to control Black and Brown people in the country. This allegation has been corroborated by our postapartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission in a series of findings that were published in 1999.

I was under the impression that the Chinese paid for abalone in the chemicals to make Mandrax? After all, Mandrax is SAs number 1 drug problem.

Our drug market has evolved rapidly over the last 30 years. India is currently the country's primary source of N-acetyl anthranilic acid. Our recent population size estimates suggest that there are more people who use heroin and methamphetamine compared with methaqualone. However, we
have seen a consistent spread of methaqualone throughout the country - outside the historical areas of the Western and Eastern Cape.

Now (pseudo)ephedrine ARE controlled in China so what are they selling to make meth?

Currently, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in the country is sourced from multiple regions such as India and Nigeria and to a lesser extent China. In Nigeria, large quantities of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are imported into the region for licit purposes, with Nigeria reporting licit requirements of more than 10 tons of ephedrine and more than 23 tons of pseudoephedrine. This is easily diverted and made available in South Africa.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

Don’t think China gona let all those Ephedra plants go to waste… I bet a lot ends up in North Korea and gets turned to meth there to be distributed in Australia by Triadas.

 

[AlsoTapered]

If you have the money, you can get ANY package sent in the 'diplomatic bag' which is how VERY high value materials get shipped. Sooner or later I expect a dihydroetorphine analogue (their are more potent ones) to turn up. 10ug blotters. So $1 BILLION/Kg. And oh boy, expect deaths a plenty.

 

[InvegaIsdeath]

it's interesting to me because it reminds me of crack introduction to already struggling communities. the government there seems to look the other way about some things and focus on some other things just like it is here.

the VICE series is full of interesting videos like this.

Africa is neocolonialized. Mali for instance is owned by France. They steal their resources, leave them with nothing.

It's basically iran contra all over the continent.

 

[AlsoTapered]

True - but it has to be said that after the coup, the people attracted into politics are those who seek to use the system to make money. Along with a civil war, it's a perfect storm. Drugs likely aren't directly supported by the government, but it's a way of enslaving the population. I also note that cocaine smugglers are now using African nations as a waypoint. I suspect that those intermediates are paid in cocaine and so it turns up on the streets.

As for Operation Coast, the nuclear & biological weapons were developed in earnest but I don't think for one minute that MDMA and methaqualone could be used in 'crowd control'. I think in that case it was individual scientists who took the opportunity to make a fortune. Note that they went for chemically simple targets? Nobody tried to make LSD or something like the BZ agents. So I think the choice was the cost & availability of precursors, the facilities to hand and the ability of the chemists involved. They simply used Project Coast as a way to be 'above' the law.

But it's quite true that the vast majority of Africa has had it's resources stolen by developed nations. The Chinese and Russians are also at it but the West originated the scam.

BTW methaqualone was produced in clandestine labs but they made so much that the glut in the market made it unviable. In 1966 a Mandrax cost £2 and in 1982 a mandrax STILL cost £2... it's only because S. Africans are prepared to SMOKE the pills (very dangerous) that it finds a market. Taken otherwise, it's not special.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

I don't think for one minute that MDMA and methaqualone could be used in 'crowd control'.

Here’s a real life example of “crowd control” with MDMA. At a day before of election suddenly loads of MDMA appear for low cost or free of cost. And suddenly amount used that day on parties is incomparable to regular times when people are busted for MDMA and have to pay for it, resulting in a very low number of young people (especially liberal people) voting on elections and “bad guys” again wining by far. I’m sure things like this happen all over the world and sometimes can be used more successfully in less and sometimes in more developed countries upon tweaking things a bit.

 

[AlsoTapered]

Well I presume you have reference?

It's still a minority of people who use MDMA and still fewer who would not be suspicious of ANYTHING free that cost £50/gram the day before. Ever notice how most elections are mid-week? Their is a solid reason for that and it's because BOTH sides fear the much more likely scenario of someone giving away free alcohol in pubs & clubs.

It would take a huge amount of police effort (tens of thousands) to set up a meaningful number of voters.

While many things are possible in theory, in practice they aren't possible.

In PC the intent (or stated intent) was specifically riot control. Like MK-ULTRA was supposed to mean the US government could put LSD into tap-water.

In fact it was Abbie Hoffman who had the best idea. Include a cardboard insert into a popular magazine (they will do it for you on the production line for less than a penny per card), let said magazine reach the shelves and be bought... then announce that the top-left 8mm of the card contained 175ug of LSD.

Getting it out there is totally possible, but to presume the public will act in a predictable manner has failed so often that it's more or less no longer studied.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

I don’t have a reference but that’s something that happened in certain city in my country. I don’t think it required really a lot of effort or money. Getting drugs that were confiscated back to street it old tradition so that’s covered. And some free or cheap drugs within small groups is nothing too strange. Only timing and scale was. As soon as opposition tried to make connections of those parties, no policing on that days and other things it stopped occurring. If you think this is bad, consider that in my country there were many cases of dead people voting (it was figured out cuz some places had more votes than voters) and that whole buses of diaspora are coming to country to vote, sometimes for certain amount of money and many other fucked up election scams, organizing parties to prevent young voters is nothing compared to scale and absurdity of what else happens.
And we have voting on Sunday here.