MSOGWABA – The anguished cries of a grandmother of a 14-year-old boy who is addicted to nyaope (heroin), echo the sorrow and pain felt by a concerned guardian.
This grandmother and guardian of a learner who has turned from a quiet, good boy, to a drug addict and is fast becoming a threat to himself and others, is desperately seeking help.
She wishes to remain anonymous and needs help to get her grandson off the scourge of nyaope, the drug that is destroying the province’s youth in escalating numbers, because it is cheap and easy to obtain. She approached Ligwalagwala FM last week and spoke to the breakfast show host, DJ Madumane. She says she has tried everything, yet even the social workers couldn’t help her and feels she now has nowhere else to go.
“I have done all I could to stop him from smoking nyaope, but worse still, he even smokes glue and marijuana which makes him a full-blown addict and he is only 14. It tears me and his mother apart and even she has given up on him. I stay with him all day and I see him when he is high and deal with the trouble he gets himself into,” said the grandmother.
He has older friends who have a bad influence on him. They buy him all these drugs and alcohol and take him to taverns around the community. They are helping my grandchild kill himself. He steals food and furniture in the house to feed this habit and the night after the interview on radio, he stole R250 from a neighbour and disappeared to buy more drugs – as we speak right now, he is high.” Heroin is known as inyaope, sugars in Durban, ungah in the Western Cape, pinch in Mpumalanga and other names like thai, H, plazana and kwape.
This drug is usually used on a daily basis because it is the cheapest and is sold by drug dealers countrywide, making it easily the most easily accessible to everyone. Research shows that heroin is usually mixed with other substances such as sugar, starch, acetaminophen procaine and quinine from dealer to dealer to make more of it so they can profit more, and this makes it even more hazardous to one’s health. There is always the risk of overdosing as it is the most highly addictive illegal drug in the world. They mix dagga with heroin, marijuana, ARV’s, rat poison and any detergent at their disposal. They call the deadly concoction wonga and smoke it till they are beyond high.
People with drug-related problems can call Sanca on
013-752-4376.
