This archive report was first published on 28 August 2019.
Rehab Centre Takes on Miraa Addiction in Ethiopia ¶
Yonas Getu Molla, a former architecture student, blames miraa for leading him into drug and alcohol addictions, which cost him his career, savings, and family respect.
At the state-run Substance Rehabilitation Centre, he has been forced to give up khat alongside his other addictions, a rare approach in a region where few are trying to tackle the controversial habit.
While banned in many countries, chewing miraa is commonplace in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa region. Many see it as a cultural activity rather than a societal problem.
However, some users are frank about the side effects: loss of appetite, damaged teeth, and lack of sleep. The habit can also drain household finances, with a user in the capital Addis Ababa paying around $4 (Sh400) a day for khat from the eastern city of Harar.
Welday Hagos, a clinical psychologist and director of the Mekele-based centre, believes that khat is a gateway drug to harder substances. He said that more than 80 percent of the 500 patients who have stayed there since it opened in 2015 started out chewing khat.
"After that they add cigarettes, after that they add alcohol. That's why it is the main gate for different drugs," said Welday. "We are not on the right track. We have to increase the knowledge of our population of the consequences of khat chewing."
