Tik has taken hold in Cape Town with terrifying speed, with the number of addicts increasing almost 10-fold in the space of a year.
Specialists call the sharp rise "unprecedented" and say new laws are needed to clamp down on the sale of the chemicals used to make the drug.
Tik, also known commonly as meth, tuk, speed or crystal, is a hugely addictive methamphetamine drug, right up with heroin, although not quite as addictive.
The white, odourless, bitter crystalline powder, which dissolves easily in water or alcohol, is a powerful stimulant that affects the central nervous system.
| 'The drug gives adolescents what they want' |
In South Africa, users typically smoke the fumes after the powder or crystal, placed in a light bulb, is heated with a lighter.
According to the latest figures, from the second half of last year, the number of addicts seeking treatment for tik use (as their main substance of abuse) spiralled from just 2,3 percent of total users in treatment in the city at the end of 2003 to nearly 20 percent at the end of 2004.
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The statistics are tracked by the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use, and involve patients at 20 specialist treatment centres in Cape Town. The network has been tracking tik use since 2002.
Even the number of users seeking treatment for tik as their secondary drug of abuse spiked sharply, almost doubling since the end of 2003. At the end of 2003 the figure was five percent of users, and the most recent statistics show 9,6 percent of addicts reporting tik as their secondary drug of abuse.
Professor Charles Parry, director of the Medical Research Council's alcohol and drug abuse research group, tracks tik abuse with his colleagues Andreas Pluddemann and Bronwyn Myers.
In their report, just released, they call the findings "unprecedented in terms of the sharp increase in the number of patients seeking treatment for methamphetamine-related problems".
Extra cause for concern came from their finding that in the second half of 2004 almost 60 percent of the patients seeking treatment for tik as their main drug of abuse were younger than 20. The ages ranged from 13 to 46.
Parry has been quoted previously as saying that they estimate there are up to 12 000 tik users in Cape Town. Most seeking treatment come from Mitchells Plain.
In the most recent report, the researchers said that of the patients seeking treatment in Cape Town for tik as their main drug of abuse, 88 percent were coloured and 72 percent were male.
Other problem areas for tik use include Retreat, Athlone, Bonteheuwel and Hanover Park.
Pointing to the power of tik, and its particular popularity with adolescents, Grant Jardine, director of the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre, has been quoted in the Cape Argus as saying the drug "gives adolescents what they want - confidence and a sense of power".
Jardine described as a devastating reality the fact that the effects of the drug - confidence, energy and a sense of power - dovetailed exactly with the adolescent state, and what youngsters saw as lacking in their lives.
With the release of their latest statistics, Parry and his team called for new laws to clamp down on the sale of the chemicals used to make tik. These include pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, anhydrous ammonia and red phosphorus.
In addition, companies that distributed chemicals or equipment used in clandestine methamphetamine laboratories needed to be investigated, and harsher penalties sought, they said.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on April 07, 2005
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