The Sunday News
Andile Tshuma, Sunday News Reporter
FOR Nelson Moyo, finding money to buy a twist of skunk was never a challenge as he did not mind walking home from school and use bus fare to finance his drug addiction.
It never seemed like an addiction to him then, but it was the in thing to skip the kombi ride into town from a local school, and then catch a ride to his home in Bulawayo’s Emakhandeni suburb.
However, after writing his Ordinary level exams, he no longer had that transport allowance from his parents, who both work as vendors in the Central Business District (CBD).
That meant that there were no more funds to feed his addiction.
Nelson had to go to a search for a new but cheaper high.
He found solace in used diapers that are found almost at every rubbish dump in his neighbourhood.
His enterprising nature, saw him start to prepare the perfect fix for other youths in the neighbourhood, which he sold for a premium in order to fund his next high.
drug addiction
In a short while, he moved to collecting light bulbs and stealing special toes of light bulbs from his neighbourhood, which he says contained some chemical which is a top drug in the underworld.
Two years after completing secondary school, Nelson is an outpatient at Ingutsheni Central Hospital, which is the country’s biggest referral hospital for mental health issues.
“It started as a fun thing that me and my friends would do after school. We would save our bus fare to buy skunk and someone sold them at school so that was never a problem. We would usually smoke it at the Centenary Park before we proceeded into CBD.
After exams, I stopped getting bus fare money, but some boys in the hood plugged me to something different. I wanted to stop, but I kept on going there. It’s like someone else was controlling my life,” said Nelson, puffing on a cigarette and passing it onto a friend, who seems too underage to be smoking.
Nelson’s story represents similar encounters of thousands of Zimbabwean youths who have become hooked into various intoxicating substances as the drug abuse scourge is growing in the country.
Substance use in Africa is on the rise, with projections estimating at 40 percent increase in people who use substances from 2020 to 2030, unfortunately, Zimbabwe is not an exception.
Reports of substance abuse in Zimbabwe paint a concerning picture of escalating prevalence of use, with over half of people admitted to inpatient mental health units reportedly experiencing a substance induced disorder.
Speaking to Sunday News last week, Ingutsheni Central Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr Nemache Mawere painted a worrying picture with statistics on substance abuse related cases that the hospital is dealing with.
The hospital executive said the institution deals with over 2 000 outpatient each month, who have a history of substance abuse, while 90 percent of inmates currently admitted to the institution have been institutionalised for alcohol and substance abuse related cases.
This has led to overcrowding in the wards with numbers constantly increasing month after month despite the hospital discharging at least 40 patients weekly.
“The issue of substance abuse is the biggest we have in Bulawayo and beyond. Ninety percent of male patients at Ingutsheni have substance related problems, very few patients have other mental health issues which are not drug related.
If you look at the female ward, there are a mixture of a lot of things, we have been talking of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.
If you sit with those women admitted, you will find that quite a substantial number of them are going through GBV issues which are leading to their mental health problems. A few are doing substance abuse but not as much as the males,” he said.
He said some wards were taking in more than double the ideal holding area, as the institution turn away patients in need of help.
Weed
“The Khumalo and St Mary’s wards are always overcrowded, particularly the Khumalo ward, as we speak has about 200 patients, yet it has a holding capacity of 89 patients and the facility is strained. We struggle to make things work in that area,” said Dr Mawere.
Dr Mawere said since the hospital, which covers the whole of the southern region was overwhelmed, he would want to decentralise treatment to local clinics in communities.
“My plan is to work on a community programme to appeal to the community to discharge patients back to them. If anything, I will be more than willing to work outside the hospital to assist local clinics and those outside the city whenever they need assistance so that they do not send patients to hospital but attend to them from their nearest clinics.”
There is hope for recovering addicts like Nelson, as Dr Mawere plans on reviving a mental health centre owned by Ingutsheni in Emakhandeni suburb, right at Nelson’s doorstep.
“We have a place in Emakhandeni, it belongs to Ingutsheni, it is a half way home and currently it is not functioning. The place can work as a clinic and we see patients and dispense medication then they return to their homes.
We also have some space where these patients can come from the community and do the same projects that we are doing at the main hospital,” he said.
He said they are now seeking to engage donors to reopen the centre. “We have to go and appeal to donors and the Government and also our own resources to start using that centre since it is ours.
We want to start seeing patients there. On average we see 2 000 patients in our out-patients’ department every month. That kind of workload is very huge and sometimes it affects the quality of work so we would rather go out there to where they are in the community,” he said.
Despite the resource constraints to adequately address substance use, the Government has shown a renewed resolve to provide a comprehensive approach to address substance use in the country.
Reports of a substance use crisis in Zimbabwe are predominantly based on anecdotal evidence, limiting the ability to gain an accurate picture of the situation.
Socio-economic challenges are also linked to increased rates of stress, trauma, and mental health challenges which all increase risk for substance use. The situation is further compounded by the treatment gap for mental, neurological and substance use disorders, with sub-Saharan Africa having the largest gap globally.
This is largely linked to the “brain drain” due to mass emigration of mental health professionals, and significant underfunding for mental health services due to resource constraints.
Ingutsheni Central Hospital clinical director Dr wellington Ranga, says there is hope for healing and recovery if families offer a strong support system to recovering addicts.
He says the challenge is embedded in the stigma associated with mental illness which makes some people abandon their relatives and never even visit them at facilities where they should get help, with one of the oldest patients at the institutions having stayed there for more than 35 years without any trace of family members.
“The challenge is that once someone has a mental health issue, when relatives bring the person here, they totally forget that person and many move on with their lives. The healing process then becomes difficult because familiar people and familiar surroundings are necessary to help a recovering patient heal.
However, the other challenge is that some of our patients are violent, especially those who have conditions that have been induced by substance abuse, so families may not want to be bothered.
It is an unfortunate situation,” said Dr Ranga. The situation for managing these disorders is also likely to be worsened by the emerging reports of the country becoming a hub for drug trafficking, whereby drug runners are reportedly compensated for their services using drugs thus increasing availability of drugs in local communities.
In response to these challenges, the country recently launched the Zimbabwe National Drug Master Plan (2020-2025) which aims at providing both a comprehensive and integrated approach to address the rise in substance use in the country.
Police have been making efforts to deal with drug and illicit alcohol syndicates, with a recent raid of merchants of illicit brews where large quantities were recovered by the police in Bulawayo.
However, experts say efforts are lacking at the borders as some drugs are being smuggled into the country due to the porous nature of the points of entry, with the country reportedly being used as a drug corridor by some people.
Speaking at a recent anti-drugs and violence campaign, Bulawayo deputy police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nomalanga Msebele said the police had a special unit that sought to not only arrest drug users and peddlers, but that also held periodic campaigns to teach communities on the dangers of substance and alcohol abuse.
“We have dealt with many heinous crimes in the province that often emanate from people committing them under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Investigations have often shown that some horrific acts of violence, rape and robbery are often done by people who are heavy users of drugs and as police our work is to rid the streets of these substances and to also educate people, particularly the youths on the dangers of such,” said Asst Insp Msebele.
