The Sunday Mail
Nyaope, also known as whoonga, a dangerous and highly addictive street drug made from a cocktail of hard and prescriptive drugs, is believed to have originated in South Africa and is reported to be gradually finding its way into the streets of Bulawayo and surrounding areas.
It is not clear what all the ingredients of nyope are, and these may vary from place to place. However, nyaope is commonly made of a lethal combination of substances, which can include heroin, detergent powder, rat poison, and crushed anti-retroviral drugs.
It is relatively cheap — at about R20 per hit — and a person can become highly addicted after using the drug only once.
A user will soon feel as if he needs several hits to make it through the day. Addiction will have set in.
Nyaope first appeared in the townships around Durban in 2010.
It is known to be a serious threat to South Africa’s HIV-positive population at the moment, with reports of gangs robbing HIV and AIDS clinics in Soweto to obtain ARVs for manufacture of nyaope.
While the drug seems to the core reason behind the robberies, addicted users have also been reported to mug ARV patients to obtain the drugs for themselves.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Paul Chimedza recently told our sister paper The Sunday News that he was unaware of the drug or the alleged abuse of ARVs.
“It is disappointing that this comes at a time when we want to have more ARVs in the country as per the new World Health Organisation’s guidelines. Instead of abusing the drugs we must consider that there are some people out there who really need them.
“I believe the responsible authorities, mainly the police, should move with speed to address this issue and ensure that these ARVs are not abused by these unscrupulous individuals,” said Dr Chimedza. — Extra Reporter-Online.
