From colonial poppy fields to pharmatrash, southern Africa offers a fascinating history of drug regimes – one that helps us make sense of drug policies and legislation today.
Options for exports of the stimulant khat are becoming ever more constrained. The anti-khat campaign that was successful in the UK is now eyeing new victories in Somalia and Kenya.
In his humorous novel Black Mischief, the 20th century English writer Evelyn Waugh wrote “Mahmud el Khali bin Sai'ud sat among his kinsmen, moodily browsing over his lapful of khat”. Of course, Waugh wasn’t…
Human use of cathinones for their psychoactive properties traces back to prehistory. Known as “khat” by the people of eastern Africa, the leaves and twigs of the Catha edulis shrub have been chewed for…
The “good old days” of psychopharmacology involved only a few major suspects: alcohol, cannabis, opiates, uppers (amphetamines), downers (barbiturates) and the occasional serendipitous curiosity such as…