Auntie Mo remembers with fondness the days before tik – described as the most
dangerous drug in the world – came to town. Today both her daughters are
addicts, gang wars rage on the streets outside her modest township home and
prostitution and unemployment have soared.
“Before tik came they were churchgoing children, they were normal teenagers
who went to school,” the 57-year-old woman said. “Tik has destroyed them,
like it destroys everything. They are nothing now, just shells of what they
once were.”
Tik, or crystal meth (methamphetamine), is a highly addictive and toxic drug
that makes takers feel good, strong and proud, with no need to eat or sleep.
It was taken by Japanese kamikaze pilots and other soldiers, such as
Hitler’s tank commanders, before going into battle and near-certain death.
Young girls are also initially tempted by enormous weight loss attached to
using the drug.
Maureen Morrison, who is known by all as Auntie Mo, looks on helplessly as her
daughters, Eleanor, 26, and Susan, 23, roam about her house, coughing and
with noses streaming. Most of the time they are incapable of caring for
their own five children. Nearly all the house’s windows are broken –
shattered during family rows over use of the drug.
“I will keep the children, but they [Eleanor and Susan] must go now. They must
learn to stand on their own feet . . . I am tired and cannot go on. I have
asked the courts to help me,” Mrs Morrison said.
Tik first appeared in South Africa about five years ago, but it is in Cape
Town’s sprawling townships – home mainly to thousands of Coloureds, the name
given in South Africa to those of mixed-race descent – where it has really
taken hold. Here, where unemployment is sometimes as high as 80 per cent,
addiction rates have soared.
The drug is sold in plastic “straws” for about 50 rand (£3), though prices
vary according to supply. Dealers and suppliers can make it very cheaply
through products bought in local chemist and hardware shops, such as cough
mixtures and battery acid.
Deborah Lea Dutton, a young middle-class white woman who is in a drug recovery
unit way beyond the means of township addicts, said: “Before you know, you
just can’t manage without it. Girls will do anything to get it, and I mean
anything. It drives you crazy. You just don’t know what you are doing.”
Tik is inhaled through a glass tube with a bulb on the end, called a lolly,
which is heated with a lighter or blow-torch. Addicts treasure their
lollies, which they keep in tiny Chinese-style sacks.
With tears in her eyes, Eleanor proudly showed The Times her lolly with much
more apparent concern than for the sick child on her knee. “I don’t want to
leave here, but I am scared of going into rehab and not having no tik,” she
cried softly. Of those who do go into rehab, only 10 per cent do not relapse
almost immediately once the treatment is over.
No one quite knows why it is called tik. Some say it is the sound addicts make
when coming down from a binge, which can last several days; others say it is
the animated way that they tap the lolly on a table before and after taking
a dose.
The drug has fuelled increases in crime and domestic violence, torn families
and communities apart and overwhelmed the underfinanced social security
services.
In the township of Atlantis, where Mrs Morrison came to live with her husband
26 years ago, about 55,000 people are crammed together in flimsy brick and
tin-roofed dwellings. Twenty miles away is Cape Town, the showpiece city and
favourite tourist destination of South Africa. The township suffered when
the tax breaks and other incentives to attract companies and jobs
disappeared at the end of apartheid. The only source of income today for
many young girls here appears to be prostituting themselves at the nearby
trucking route – a practice that has had a devastating impact on already
high HIV-Aids rates.
Children as young as 7 and 8 have even been found taking tik. “It is difficult
to know at first because it does not smell. You don’t know they are taking
it until it is too late,” said Siona O’Connell, who has been researching the
effect of the drug on local communities.
Ms O’Connell, who is a Coloured herself, said that the problem on the Cape
Flats, which was already notorious for gang violence, was the deep sense of
marginalisation that many people felt after apartheid ended. That makes the
issue highly political and exactly the type of problem that the Government
prefers not to address.
“There is a feeling among Coloured people that they are simply not black
enough and will not get jobs and favours in the new South Africa. There is
also historic antagonism towards the ANC,” she said.
About 10 per cent of South Africa’s 45 million-strong population is classified
as Coloured. Historically they often aligned themselves with the ruling
white minority and even today many refuse to vote for the ANC, which they
accuse of cronyism and favouritism towards other black African communities.
Last week the Government pledged to step up the fight against tik, but many
people think that it is too late. In places such as Atlantis almost every
second house seems in some way connected to the drug. Police and local
councillors have reportedly been corrupted by the huge amounts of easy money
involved.
“There are lolly manufacturers, dealers, traders – it is a whole business and
I can see no hope at all. It is impossible to get the addicts to see reason.
We have to focus now on the children,” Mrs O’Connell said.
Crystal killer
–– Tik, or crystal meth, is a colourless, odourless form of d-methamphetamine,
which is a powerfully addictive synthetic stimulant. It typically resembles
small fragments of glass or shiny rocks
–– The drug is usually smoked using glass pipes similar to those used for
crack, although it can also be injected. The high may last for more than 12
hours
–– Use of crystal meth can raise the heart rate, increase blood pressure and
cause damage to blood vessels in the brain, which can lead to a stroke
–– Chronic use of crystal meth can lead to inflammation of the heart lining,
collapsed veins, abscesses, hyperthermia, convulsions and death
–– Crystal meth can trigger violent behaviour, paranoia, insomnia, anxiety and
psychotic symptoms that sometimes last for years after the user has stopped
taking it. Although known as tik in South Africa, its most common street
names are ice and glass
*Source: National Drug Intelligence Centre
