New Russian drug a concern for Wedge Gardens
JOBURG - Rand Aid Association's Wedge Gardens Treatment Centre in Whitney Gardens dreads the day when widespread use of the drug, krokodil, hits the streets of South Africa.
According to Wedge Gardens, the drug was developed in the poorer areas of Russia as a cheap alternative to heroin.
Its medical name is desomorphine, but it is commonly known as krokodil because of the terrible effect it has on a user’s skin.
Lizette Treurnich, a social worker at Wedge Gardens Treatment Centre said, “Krokodil is a mixture of codeine and highly toxic substances. It is easy to make at home and once injected, the high lasts between 90 minutes to two hours.”
According to Treurnich, the drug surfaced in Russia about a decade ago and now seems to be slowly infiltrating America. Although there are no known krokodil statistics in South Africa, a number of cases have been reported at emergency units, especially in the Western Cape.
“Krokodil is cheap, easy to make, uses easily accessible ingredients and induces a powerful high. It is only a matter of time before this drug becomes popular in South Africa. When injected, it causes blood vessels to burst and surrounding tissue to die, sometimes falling off the bone in chunks. That side effect has earned krokodil its other nickname: the zombie drug. The typical life span of an addict is just two to three years,” added Treurnich.
According to Treurnich, withdrawal symptoms are extreme and much worse than heroin, which can cause sickness and pain for up to 10 days, but withdrawal from krokodil can result in a month of excruciating pain. If a person does manage to stop using, they are often left with permanent damage including speech impediments, a vacant gaze and erratic movements.
Treurnich mentioned, “Signs of use include scaly lesions at injection sites and grey and green, scabrous, flaky skin. Photos of the effects of krokodil are too graphic for publication but can be sourced online.”
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