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Whoonga

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Whoonga (also known as nyaope or wunga)[1] is a street drug that has allegedly come into widespread use in South Africa since 2010, mostly in the impoverished townships of Durban, although it is claimed to be appearing in other places in South Africa as well. The drug is said to contain HIV antiretroviral drugs, but analysis of samples shows no such content, and police have remarked that dealers are known to add "all sorts of stuff" to a drug to bulk it out. In 2014, Vice magazine correspondent Hamilton Morris did a piece on this, titled Getting High on HIV Drugs.

Contested claims of anti-retroviral content

Whoonga is famous for allegedly containing antiretroviral drugs prescribed for HIV,[2][3][4] but its exact ingredients are disputed and it has been argued that the claim that the drug contains AIDS medication is simply an urban legend.[5]

One version of the claim is that whoonga contains classic psychoactive drugs such as cannabis,[6][7] crystal meth[8] or heroin[8][9] potentiated by interactions with the antiretroviral ritonavir. Another is that the drug contains efavirenz (alone or with the ingredients mentioned above), which supposedly has psychoactive side effects.

AIDS experts point out that the ingredients of the anti-retroviral drugs are unlikely to cause the whoonga high and users may be fooling themselves in that regard.[4] A laboratory analysis of samples of whoonga failed to detect any anti-retroviral drugs in its makeup,[10] and a medical scientist who has analysed the contents of the drug has concluded that it does not contain AIDS anti-retroviral medication.[11] According to some experts of the South African Police Service and drug rehabiliation centres whoonga is essentially just a rebranding of older heroin based drugs.[8] A member of the police's Organised Crime Unit has said that "drug dealers add all sorts of stuff to the heroin, the primary ingredient, just to increase the mass of the drug when it's sold and make the heroin go further. A lot of the stuff has no effect and users have no idea what's going in."[8]

The anti-retroviral drugs allegedly used to make whoonga are part of those distributed in the area to patients with HIV, being on government treatment projects. The claimed major source of the anti-retrovirals appears to be robbery from HIV patients, with media reports claiming that patients are being mugged for their pills as they leave the clinics where they obtain them. Reports also claim that some patients sell their HIV medications and that some corrupt health workers may be selling the anti-retrovirals illegally into the whoonga market.[6][12][13]

A Harvard School of Public Health researcher has expressed concern that people with HIV who smoke whoong may develop mutant strains of the HIV virus which are resistant to the medication.[2] HIV drug resistance is growing due to recreational use of HIV drugs efavirenz and ritonavir, rendering them ineffective not only for users but non-users as well,[14] with one study showing that 3% to 5% of people with HIV in areas where whoonga was used were showing "pre-treatment resistance" to antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV.[2]

Dr. David Grelotti suggests that street use of AIDS anti-retroviral medication efavirenz (sold as Sustiva in the US) could exploit the HIV drug's "well-known tendency to cause especially vivid and colorful dreams and other central nervous system effects. Hypothetically, that could enhance the effects of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and other illicit drugs." Also the other drug ritonavir (brand name Norvir), is thought to enhance or prolong the effects of some street drugs, such as MDMA or Ecstasy.[2]

Access

The cost of the drug is reported to be about 20 rand (US$2). Reports indicate that a whoonga addict needs several doses a day, however, and users are typically too poor to afford the drug out of their legal income. Addicts therefore turn to crime to raise the money for their supply. There are reports that claim whoonga addicts attempt to become HIV-positive, since anti-retrovirals are distributed to HIV patients free of charge by the Department of Health.[6]

According to a report in The Sowetan, the organisation Whoonga Free, founded to battle addiction to the drug, collapsed for lack of funding in March 2011.[15]

As of 28 February 2013 the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has been in the process of amending the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 so that the possession and trafficking of the drug is made illegal.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Nyaope to be officially classified". Sowetan Live. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d Richard Knox: Dangers of 'Whoonga': Abuse Of AIDS Drugs Stokes Resistance. National Public Radio, 18 December 2012
  3. ^ Ronelle Ramsamy: Deadly Gamble. Zululand Observer, 2010
  4. ^ a b Donna Bryson: AIDS drugs stolen in South Africa for 'whoonga' . Associated Press, 28 November 2010
  5. ^ Rat Poison & Heroin, Samora Chapman, Mahala, 2013
  6. ^ a b c New drug sweeping South Africa – Al Jazeera English Report (video, 2:15 min)
  7. ^ Ayanda Mdluli, Branden Ward and Daniel Whitehorn: Whoonga drug spreads rapidly. Website of the Sunday Tribune on 21 June 2010 (retrieved 5 November 2010)
  8. ^ a b c d Masood Boomgaard: Whoonga Whammy. Independent Online, 28 November 2010
  9. ^ Slindile Maluleka: Dagga muffins back at schools. Independent Online, 8 November 2010
  10. ^ Kwa Dabekaa: Heroin's Handmaiden. Dispatches, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 28 July 2011
  11. ^ Rat Poison & Heroin, Samora Chapman, Mahala, 2013
  12. ^ Bryson, Donna (20 November 2010). "'Whoonga' drug: a new twist in S.Africa's AIDS war". Associated Press. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  13. ^ Subashi Naidoo: 'Two pulls and I was hooked'. Addicts mug patients for ARVs. Times Live, 28 November 2010
  14. ^ http://www.voxxi.com/hiv-drug-resistance-whoonga/
  15. ^ Corrine Louw: Whoonga Battle Lost. The Sowetan, 12 April 2011

References

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