The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sunday News Correspondent
There was a time when drug use in Zimbabwe in general and Bulawayo in particular was not considered a serious matter: numbers of addicts were fairly manageable. People smoked the occasional cannabis/mbanje ‘blunt’ and many a time well hidden from the general public.
But today’s drugs of choice have exotic names like skunk (skizzy) which also has various strains like purple haze. Today’s drug scene is more dangerous with options such as crystal meth, crack cocaine and ecstasy becoming readily available to youths looking for a high.
Trafficking has become a major source of income for the brave while addiction is now worn on a sleeve like a badge of honour. Stand long enough at any one corner in the city and the guys on that corner are always keen to offer advice: “You don’t want to be hanging around here too long,” one said to this writer, refusing to elaborate.
They were sitting in the bus shelters at the City Hall, smack in the middle of the central business district and for a long time, the undisputed territory of drug traffickers. It was getting dark, another two young men appeared and, when asked if they had skizzy, one said: “You should go.” This writer was escorted away from the action and told not to return.
These and other young men belong to the “retail game” of the drug trade. They are the street dealers and enforcers for organised and very secretive criminal syndicates who are consolidating their markets within the criminal underworld and on their way to establishing a booming drugs market.
But generally, across the entire city, one can ‘score a blunt”. There are ‘plugs’ at the service station on 6th Avenue and Lobengula Street, City Hall, corner 9th Avenue and George Silundika, and Railway Avenue. In the ‘burbs’, 23rd avenue in Famona is a popular spot to ‘score’ as is the Morningside Shopping Centre.
How this new breed of drug dealers came to conquer the Bulawayo drugs market is a lesson in criminal savvy; the value of making friends with the most dangerous thugs; and the absolute threat of violence.
It began with a business model that was simple in concept, but sufficiently bold to subvert the existing order. For years marijuana’s local importers worked separately from its wholesalers and the gangs. The majority of ‘product’ was smuggled in from Malawi and Mozambique. Pricing structures varied but quality was almost always similar.
Today’s drug dealer ditched the entire model and introduced ‘high grades’ like skunk and ‘swazi’ which have decimated the ‘bush or Malawi’ market. Upmarket addicts moved to crystal meth and other such exotic options which are pricier than the marijuana derivatives. They began to import directly from South Africa and huge shipments were arranged direct from source while supply chains have been kept in-house.
Skunk or skizzy as it is popularly known is the most popular drug in the city at the moment. This ‘high grade’ has the highest number of users. Buyers range from the rich of Burnside to the poor of Makokoba. The common factor is the youthfulness of both retailers and consumers.
Adult marijuana smokers have no faith in this new scourge preferring their ‘bush’ of old. Many consider skunk a doctored and bastardised version of the real thing and steer clear of it. However, their suppliers of ‘bush’ have had to include skunk to stay relevant and now the two markets will often meet as they both score their preferred drugs. The adults never miss out on the opportunity to sneer at the ‘young guns’ scoring ‘skizzy’.
“Kuzalihlanyisa okuzimbanje kwenyu lokhu okufakwe izinto bafana (you will go mad from your tainted mbanje),” they will often tell these youngsters.
But smoking ‘skizzy’ has become the in thing! And for good measure, so is crystal meth! Business is booming as more young people, some at school, use crystal meth or mutoriro. Addicts of this new ‘high’ use anything from fluorescent bulbs as pipes to candles as lighters.
Properly known as methamphetamine, crystal meth is a highly addictive stimulant used for its powerful euphoric effects. There is a process of recrystallizing the white or sometimes brown sugar like chemical into a brown smoking smear. The j-shaped ‘pipe’ is made from fluorescent tubes from disused energy-saver bulbs.
A gram of crystal meth is relatively expensive for the average ghetto youth with prices ranging from between US$8 to US$15 depending on supplier and the corner. So this has become the new drug of choice for the cash laden youth from the ‘burbs’ whose wealthy parents are often in the dark about their children’s extra curricular activities under cover of darkness but sometimes brazenly in the open.
Traffickers have shown business savvy as they milk their drug-thirsty market. Suppliers told the Sunday News that crystal meth is smuggled into the country through the bush borders with South Africa to be sold on the city’s equally drug insensitive streets.
“My guy, I get my stuff from South Africa. I get skizzy, meth, swazi and crack cocaine at very fair prices. I have customers from the ghetto and from the suburbs. Ghetto buyers prefer skizzy because it is more affordable. One gram of skizzy is US$1 while my one gram of meth is US$8,” said a young ‘plug’ at the 6th Avenue service station.
Invariably, these new highs have more than a health consequence: many a drug fogged youth has now taken to stealing from home to get money for a ‘hit’. Small household items have become a source of income for these ‘druggies’ as well as the ‘fences’ who buy the stolen household goods from them: a lucrative hustle riding on the coat tails of what is increasingly becoming a very profitable drug scene.
