Johannesburg - Improved policing in Europe has resulted in South Africa becoming an important destination for criminals as they move drugs from Afghanistan down the east coast of Africa.
The East African drug route is highlighted in the newly released 2013 World Drug Report as a challenge to authorities.
Since 2009, the report states, seizures of heroin in Africa, especial on the east coast, have increased tenfold.
The report was released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The route begins in Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opium, then goes through Pakistan.
The next leg of the journey is by sea to countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique. While this route is mainly used for heroin, hashish and chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamines are also moved.
“The trafficking routes through southern Africa have likely developed in response to improved policing along the ‘Balkans route’ to European markets, as well as increased demand locally,” the UNODC said.
The World Drug Report also highlights the emergence of new types of drug that have authorities concerned.
The new psychoactive substances (NPSes) are described in the report as an umbrella term for unregulated psychoactive substances that mimic the effects of controlled drugs. They are marketed under various names.
The report said member states of the UNODC had seen an increase of NPS use of 50 percent between 2009 and mid-2012. Also, seven African countries – South Africa, Angola, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Togo and Zimbabwe – had reported the emergence of NPSes.
“These are dangerous. We don’t know what the long-term effects are to users,” said Marie Claire van Hout, substance abuse researcher at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland.
Users of NPSes had arrived in hospital emergency rooms, leaving doctors puzzled and not sure what they had overdosed on, she noted. Often those drugs were legal because it took time for countries to criminalise the substance, said Van Hout.
When the drug was criminalised, NPS manufacturers would often change its composition, decriminalising it.
The report said the international drug control system “is floundering for the first time, under the speed and creativity of the phenomenon known as new psychoactive substances”.
The findings of the latest World Drug Report coincide with the launch of a new anti-drug initiative in Gauteng.
LeadSA, in partnership with Crime Line, launched Drug Watch on Wednesday.
The initiative’s aim is to bolster the fight against drugs across the province by strengthening the efforts of the SAPS, community police forums, the government and the metro police.
“Drug Watch aims to squeeze the space in which drug dealers are able to operate in and enable communities to deal with the problems they face,” said Crime Line head Yusuf Abramjee.
Meanwhile, scores of police hit Westbury and Newlands on Wednesday, targeting drug dealers and users. Within two hours, 12 people were arrested.
“They were caught with small amounts of drugs on them, mainly dagga and cat,” said a police spokesman
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The Star