Anything goes for these preteens

Children as young as 10 at a primary school in Cape Town have admitted to smoking anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, headache tablets and other over-the-counter medicines to get high, a study shows.

This comes after a report to a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting of the department of social development two weeks ago which said special attention needed to be focused on this new trend.

Now an impact study by an after-school care project has shown that pupils from Andile Public Primary School in New Crossroads have admitted to buying and smoking drugs used in the treatment of HIV/Aids patients, as well as other pharmaceuticals.

Ncediswa Bolotina, a member of Partners with After Care School Projects (Pascap), produced the report which said that in addition to smoking ARVs, children were smoking over-the-counter painkillers.

In a bid to counter this, Pascap has started a drug awareness programme for pupils at schools in disadvantaged areas.

About 884 boys and 754 girls have participated in the pro-gramme which extends across New Crossroads, Langa, Khayelitsha, Paarl and George.

The report said that during assessment sessions, 55 percent of the boys and 20 percent of the girls reported they had tried cigarettes and alcohol with friends.

Liquor

A programme facilitator, Nthabiseng Lebitsa of the Centre for Drug Action in Khayelitsha, said about five pupils had admitted to smoking ARVs.

She said she believed the people who sold the ARVs usually did so to buy liquor.

The pupils reported having smoked the drugs, which they laced either with dagga or Tik.

She said facilitators could only provide guidance to children and advise them not to smoke ARVs.

"We don't know yet what it does to the brain. The children said they've 'seen' things and usually hallucinate," she said.

Prof Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Gugulethu said she had heard ARVs were being used as a recreational drug.

Last week, New Crossroads ward councillor Elese Depoutch said he believed stolen ARVs had been sold to buy Tik. - Daily News

That's a lot of weed...

Three and a half tons of dagga worth around R3,4-million were seized by Beaufort West police in one week, Western Cape police said on Friday.

Spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said that in all three cases vehicles were stopped while heading for Cape Town.

The first incident occurred at 6.30pm on Sunday on the N1 highway. Police received a tip-off and arrested 26-year-old Lucky Ntshangase in possession of 240kg of dagga, worth around R240 000.

Ntshangase appeared in the Beaufort West Magistrate's Court. His postponement date has not been received from the court. He would remain in custody.

The second incident occurred at 11pm on Monday when police received another tip-off and found 2,2 tons of dagga dumped on a cliff about 100 metres from the N1 highway.

Myezo Mgushelo, aged 44, was arrested in connection with the dagga seized.

He appeared before the Beaufort West Magistrate's Court and his case was postponed to May 22 for bail application.

On Thursday police followed information received from the public and stopped a Volvo truck. Inside police found dagga weighing approximately a ton.

A 45-year-old man was arrested and would appear before the Beaufort West Magistrate's Court on Monday, Mangqwengqwe said. - Sapa