By Mohamed Bali

Khat is defined as the leaves and young shoots of Catha edulis, an ever-green shrub of the family Celestraceae. People in East Africa and southern part of the Arabian Peninsula customarily chew leaves to produce a state of euphoria and stimulation.

Khat leaves contain psychoactive ingredients known as Cathinone, which is structurally and chemically similar to d-amphetamine, and Cathine, a milder form of Cathinone. Fresh leaves contain both ingredients; those left unrefrigerated beyond 48 hours would contain only Cathine which explains users' preference for fresh leaves. This is because Cathinone, the most potent active principle of Khat, is chemically unstable.

Peter Kalix (1986), a noted Swiss scholar of Khat, gave a brief account of Khat and how it is used. Apparently, it was taken socially to induce feelings of pleasure and euphoria, produce excitation, banish sleep, and enhance self-esteem while energy and alertness seem to be increased. It was used as a stimulant to dispel feelings of hunger and fatigue. The chewer becomes communicative and tends toward social interaction, and may develop ideas of greatness, "wisdom" and latent aggressivity. During the chewing there are lively discussions often pertaining to matters of general interest, and in this way the Khat catalyzes social interaction and integration.

In animals, too, Khat produces excitation and increased motor activity. In humans, it is a stimulant producing exaltation, a feeling of being liberated from space and time. It may produce extreme loquacity, inane and childish laughter, and eventually a semi-coma. Upon first chewing Khat, the initial effects were unpleasant and included dizziness, lassitude, tachycardia, and sometimes epigastric pain. Gradually more pleasant feelings replaced these inaugral thoughts. The subjects had feelings of bliss, clarity of thoughts, and become euphoric and overly energetic. Sometimes Khat produced depression, sleepiness, and then deep sleep. The chronic user, a shadow behind glassy eyes and tired face, tended to be euphoric continually.

In his book, The First Footsteps in East Africa, Richard Burton provides one of the earliest detailed accounts, as the first European to enter the forbidden city of Harar, now in Ethiopia. He describes an occasion in Harar where Khat was being chewed in his company:

..."The Grandees were eating Kat, or as it is here called "Jat". One of the party prepared for the prime minister the tenderest twigs of the tree, plucking off the points of even the softest leaves. Another pounded the plant with a little water in a wooden mortar; of this paste, called Al-Madkuk', a bit was handed to each person, who rolling it into a ball, dropped it into his mouth. All at times, as is the custom, drank cold water from a smoked gourd, and seemed to dwell upon the sweet and pleasant draught. I could not but remark the fine flavor of the plant after the courser quality grown in al- Yeman. European perceive but little effect from it - friend S. And I once tried in vain a strong infusion - the Arabs, however, unaccustomed to stimulants and narcotic, declare that, like opium eaters, they cannot live without the excitement. It seems to produce in them manner of dreamy enjoyment, which, exaggerated by time and distance, may have given rise to that splendid myth of the Lotos, and the Lotophagi. It is held by the ulema here as in Arabia, "Akl al Salkin', or the food of pious and literati remark that it has the singular properties of enlivening the imagination, clearing the ideas, cheering the heart, diminishing sleep, and taking the place of food. The people of Harar eat it every day from 9.am. till near noon, when they dine and afterwards indulge in something stronger - millet-beer and mead". (Burton, 1966:196-197).

In Somaliland, Khat chewing remained confined to the mystics and Sufi circles, who used the leafy plant to banish sleep during their Koran recitation sessions, until the 1950s, when a new urban and secular groups took up the chewing of the khat, as Charles Geshekter explains:

• In the towns, traders, coffee shop owners, personal servants of British government officials, truck drivers, and tacabbir demonstrated new interests and aspirations. Young townsmen began chewing qaad (catha edulis), a shrub whose leaves and shoots contain weak d-amphetamines (cathine and cathinone) which produce a euphoric, stimulating, exciting but finally depressing effect when chewed.... In 1928, approximately 750 bundles were identifiably imported into the Protectorate, and by 1936 the "known" amount had increased five-fold to 4,000.

  Chewing qaad became especially popular among small groups of poets known alternatively as the buugaan buug or qaraami, who emphasized social solidarity and community of purpose through their poems (often recited with instrumental music); their themes included romance, extra-marital flirtations, consumer expectations, and political matters. Chewing qaad for hours became an important ritual of friendship and mutual trust which engendered social cohesion through the custom of chewing together from a common bundle of twigs. Before the War, nomads sometimes referred to these residents collectively as the Kabacad ("white shoes," in other words, their European shoes and trousers), or occasionally, more pejoratively, as nasraani("Christians"). By the late 1940s, when Governor Gerald Reece tried to proscribe qaad-chewing, his efforts simply stimulated its consumption as "chewing" became symbolic of one's refusal to accept colonialist authority.(Geshekter, 1985:7)

In Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Khat is much more than a psychtropic plant. It is the basis of a lifestyle and plays a dominant role in all male activities - celebrations, marriages, business proceedings, and political meetings, as Lancaster explains in a recent article:

• Khat is used by the lowliest goatherd and loftiest government minister. It defines the rhythms of the day. Government offices close at 2 p.m., allowing plenty of time to chew .... they sprawl on cushions, puffing on water pipes or cigarettes and sipping from water bottles to combat the dehydration that is one of the Khat's side effects. Conversation, which flows rapidly at the outset, wanes as the Khat begins to take effect and the chewers approach "Soloman's hour", an introspective time that is often accompanied by the playing of the oud,.... The typical session lasts from three to four hours, after which the chewer spit out his wad of Khat-mulch and goes home." (Lancaster, 1997).

Since only fresh leaves have the desired effects, the Khat habit has remained to those areas. It is seedless, and this may explain its limitation to Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen. However, with the development of international travel Khat use tends to spread to countries far away from the areas of cultivation. Khat is now air-freighted and is available in Europe and North America, following the migration routes of the increasing number of immigrants from East Africa and Southern Arabia.

Advocates of Khat use claim that it eases symptoms of diabetes, asthma, and stomach/intestinal tract disorders, and facilitates Somaliland's unique democracy of face-to-face social interactions and negotiations. On the other hand, opponents claim that Khat damages health, suppresses appetite, prevents sleep, and drains the economy. In this note, the magnitude of the social problem and its economic significance is left to the readers to conjecture. There has been much talk on this subject at various levels and times and many groups of "experts" have been commissioned to study Khat in order to recommend banning it or restricting the continued use of it (Elmi, 1987).

Omar Mohammed, possibly the harshest critic of the khat chewing in Somaliland, states, possibly while chewing the Khat itself,

"Users are nervous and irritable, and this is frequently made worse by the fact that they know how the habit is affecting their lives, but can do nothing to break free, and see little prospect of rebuilding their lives even if they could give up. The results are immense misery, social disruption and tense relationships, family break-ups and domestic violence" (Mohammed, 1994).

References Cited

1. Burton, Richard. The First Footsteps in East Africa (New York: Preager, 1966 edition).
2. Elmi, A. "Experience in the Control of Khat in Somalia", Bulletin on Narcotics, v34:51-57 (1987).
3. Geshekter, Charles. "Anti-Colonialism and Class Formation : The Eastern Horn of Africa Before 1950", International Journal of African Studies, v18:1-32 (1985).
4. Kalix, Peter. "Chewing Khat", World Health, June 1986.
5. Lancaster, John. "Chewing the Khat: A Lumpy Dud", Washington Post, May 12, 1997 at B01.
6. Mohammed, Omar. "Nomads and Women Carry the Burden of Qat", Panoscope, April 1994.

Appendix

• Khat in Minnesota
• FDA Advisory on Khat
• Sort of legal. Sort of not. Somali wonder drug. Makes you hot.
• Canadian men suspected of drug smuggling at airport
• Khat Project - Recommended Health Guide For Khat Users

Khat in Minnesota

• Outside a shabby two-story office building on Nicollet Avenue, a friendly discussion has erupted. "I have chewed khat. My uncle used to sell khat. My father chewed khat. It is not a drug," insists Said, an Eritrean. "I never saw my father get crazy or hurt anyone." Abdikarim Osman Ugas, a UM English graduate student from Somalia, disagrees. "I've seen grown men cry when they can't get khat," he argues. "If it's not a drug, why do they pay $30 or $35 to get some?"

  Over the past year, the same debate has been played out through Minnesota's courts, police precincts, and international ports of entry. Fueled by a growing immigrant community from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, and the Middle East, the demand for the drug known as khat is on the rise. It's a social drug back home, with groups of men gathering to chew the leaves of the catha edulis tree at the end of their day. But in the United States, it's an illegal drug, classified as a schedule-one narcotic by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which puts it in the same legal category as heroin and cocaine.

  As is often the case in cross-cultural phenomena, even the nature of the drug itself is cloudy, and translates poorly. "I think some even say it has less effect than coffee," says Osman Sahardeed, coordinator of the Somali Community of Minnesota. In Somalia, he says, "the elders used it. It was widely accepted." Out of the 600 or 700 drug cases Hennepin County District Court Judge Kevin Burke heard in the past year, a handful concerned khat. "I'd say it's more like alcohol," he hazards. "You'd have to drink one hell of a lot of coffee to mess up your life. I'm a little hesitant to say, 'Don't worry about khat.' I may have seen a fairly skewed version of users, but the people that I've seen are not horribly strung out. I'm not trying to excuse use of the drug, but it pales in comparison to the people I've seen on crack or meth."

  Jim Bransford, who runs Excelsior Project, Inc., the drug-and-alcohol counseling center where Ugas helps out, likens chewing khat to chewing coca leaves: a mild, culturally accepted stimulant that bears no comparison to the concentrated cocaine derivative extracted from the coca plant. "What makes it illegal," he maintains, "is that the DEA says it is."

  Part of the confusion over khat's potency comes from the active ingredients in the catha edulis leaves, particularly cathinone, which is what gives the drug its schedule-one priority on the DEA list. But cathinone is present mostly in fresh khat, and steadily diminishes with the age of the leaves.

  Because stale khat loses its cathinone, shipments come by airplane from Canada and England (where the drug is legal) in small packages tied up in banana leaves to preserve moisture. Someone smuggling khat into the country could face up to life in prison, although first-time offenders are generally treated more leniently and recent changes in immigration law allow repeat offenders to be deported. The problem is that few Somalis know that khat, a drug widely accepted in their homeland, is even illegal here.

  In the past year, only some nine people have been arrested and charged in Hennepin County with possessing khat. With the exception of one English baggage handler deported for trying to smuggle the drug, they have all been Somalis caught with small amounts appropriate for personal use and none have been sentenced to jail time.

  Ugas, who is a court interpreter, remembers one case in which the police stopped a Somali in his car who happened to be chewing khat. "They said, 'What do you do with khat?' And he says, 'Oh that? I'm selling it.' That shows you they don't know that it's a drug."

  Since the Somali civil war, immigration from the African nation has been on the rise. Estimates of the number of Somalis living in Minnesota range upward from 10,000, and many come to the Twin Cities having never lived with running water or coped with urban life, much less with an American city. "Khat is something that can help them feel like they are at home," Ugas says. "By doing khat and talking with friends, it reminds them that, while they are far from home at least by distance, they are still near Somalia."

  "These are new immigrants to the country and they need to get educated to a lot of things," says Sahardeed, whose organization, Somali Community of Minnesota, is designed to do just that. Sahardeed was first alerted to the illegality of khat when a young Somali came to him after he was arrested for possessing the drug. It took him by surprise. "What surprised me the most is that if it's a drug, if it has side effects, or some other stuff, then the British would have a law before anyone else because they are who colonized our part of the world," he reasons. "In England, they take taxes from people, they import khat the same as tea. And London," he laughs, "it's not like Amsterdam, if you know what I'm saying."

  But in the United States, in the era of rigid drug prohibition, the legalization of khat stands little chance, whatever its place in the culture of African immigrants. "The active ingredients are serious drugs. They're not caffeine," says Jim Spencer, an attorney with the criminal division of the state attorney general's office. "Generally, the social use of drugs is not an excuse. My own perception is that khat is a growing problem."

  If the DEA needed any ammunition as to the seriousness of khat, it could have cited stories from western reporters covering the Somali civil war. News reports from the region detailed drug-crazed "war lords" sporting fistfuls of grenades and mouths full of khat. Even the usually staid Journal of the American Medical Association strayed into hyperbolic territory when it featured the drug in a 1993 article. "It is difficult to determine just how much the aggression-inducing nature of khat has contributed," JAMA reported, "to what is already a cauldron of anarchy and violence in Somalia. Reports in the media have associated khat chewing with reckless driving, senseless arguments, and the exchange of gunfire."

  Sahardeed, however, calls these reports "just nonsense. I have been with Somali all my life, and I've never seen a Somali guy who gets crazy or anything like that while chewing khat. I've never seen anything like it."

  Ugas hopes to launch a program called the Somali Community Service Center that would not only alert Somalis to the risks of using khat, but would help them with the wider range of issues they face as recent immigrants to the United States. To Ugas, the two are inseparable. "It's about the conflict of cultures. They're refugees from the civil war, really. Some of them saw their own parents killed in front of them. Right now there are no psychologists or social workers who can see what's going on with them...."

  Like Ugas, Sahardeed says his main concern is alerting Somali immigrants to the dangers they face--arrest, and under the new immigration laws, possible deportation--if they are found with khat. "What we want is to educate the people." But the fact that khat is often a mild drug and its universal cultural acceptance back home--Ugas offers that 80 percent of his countrymen use khat--make the job more difficult. But deportation and jail time are all too real deterrents. "If anybody wants to abide by the laws of this country," says Sahardeed, "we, the Somalis, want to do that."

FDA Advisory on Khat

• CHARGE: "The article is subject to refusal of admission pursuant to Section 801(a)(3) in that it appears its labeling fails to bear adequate directions for use [Misbranding, Section 502(f)(1)]."

  RECOMMENDING OFFICE : Division of Import Operations & Policy, HFC-170
  REASON FOR ALERT : Catha Edulis (khat) is a shrub cultivated for its leaves that act as a "stimulant narcotic" when chewed or used as a tea. Its leaves and young shoots are used by chewing, by brewing as a tea, or by smoking in water pipes according to the Drug Enforcement Administration) to get a stimulant effect, caused by the compound cathinone, (which is similar to that of amphetamine and its congeners).

• In 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) added cathine ((+)- norpseudoephedrine) to schedule IV, as a stimulant having an effect on the central nervous system. DEA received comments regarding the proposed control of cathine and its impact on the use of the plant, khat. Following a review of the information available on the chemical constituents found in khat, it was determined that khat would be subject to the same Schedule IV controls as cathine, one of the psychoactive substances found in khat. Such a position is consistent with the controls imposed on many other plants containing controlled psychoactive substances. (Federal Register, Vol. 53, May 17, 1988, pp 17459).

  Review of detention data for FY 90-92, shows detentions of Catha Edulis (khat) continue to be made on a limited basis (1 per year). However, due to the number of scientific and common names under which importation of the substance may be attempted, the import alert remains in effect.

  INSTRUCTIONS : Detain all entries of khat.

  Alert your local Customs Office and USDA of FDA's continued interest in preventing entry of khat so that we are informed of all such entries. Provide Customs with a list of the various names under which this item might be declared when entered and request that movement under bond be denied because of possible distribution. Inform both Customs and USDA that khat may be falsely declared as Molokheya (Corchorus olitorius), a permitted Egyptian vegetable also known as tossa jute and jew's mallow.

PREPARED BY : Linda A. Wisniowski, DIOP, 301-443-6553. Attachm ent - Import Alert #66-23

Sort of legal. Sort of not. Somali wonder drug. Makes you hot.

By Jeb Blount, Saturday Night/March 1996

• "Ahmed", a Somali refugee, arrived in Toronto ten years ago, and on a good saturday night he clears $5000 in profits. His chosen profession: smuggling Khat, an East African stimulant made infamous by manic child soldiers during the war in Somalia. In Canada, it's legal to chew but illegal to import Khat, a state of affairs that frustrates Ahmed.

  "We want to import it legally," he says, "but Agriculture Canada won't give us a license. This is part of culture - it's nothing bad. At home, everybody chews it. Here, we pay too much."

  Or, to put it more precisely, Ahmed's customers do. The mark-ups are astronomical: his couriers pay less than five dollars for a 100-gram packet in Britain, where Khat is legally imported from Kenya, and then sneak it into Canada, where Ahmed sells it to dealers for forty dollars. Users, mostly Somalis in the barren, windswept apartment blocks of Toronto's suburbs, pay fifty dollars.

  But, for a smuggler, Ahmed seems uninterested in getting rich. (His earnings are dispersed among an extended family in Canada, Europe, and Africa, and during the week he volunteers at a community-service agency, helping others with welfare and immigration problems). His goal is efficiency. Customs nab his couriers with $5000 fines, so Ahmed is considering an innovation - dumping his Somali "mules" for whites, because Cutoms is easier on them.

  Tonight, however, there's good news. "They've left the airport and are moving east," Ahmed reports, tracking his latest shipment via a pay phone in a strip-mall bar.

  Forty-five minutes later, he arrives at an apartment near the top of a tall building at the edge of the city. He removes his shoes and joins several other Somali men who are sitting on green, late-twentieth-century Moorish floor cushions. Children peek in from the hall. On the TV in the corner, Jerry Springer is helping secret lovers unveil their passions.

  Ahmed is handed a black plastic bag that contains a bundle of rubbery twigs wrapped in banana leaf. He nibbles the soft green tip of a dandelion-sized Khat branch, then sets to work on the reddish bark on the lower stem, peeling it off with his teeth. "It makes you want to talk," he says, between chews.

  "It makes you think," a nighbour adds, pointing to his head. "It also makes you ... you know... good with the wife," Ahmed says, pumping his fist back and forth. "When I go home...she loves me." His friends nod and giggle shyly.

  The tips taste bittersweet, like a stalk of grass gone to seed, but the bark is just bitter. Khat juice combines with saliva as glands in the cheek and beneath the tongue respond toa rough, dry sensation. Soon, my chaw is full of a bright-green paste, but nothing happens - right away.

  I start feeling up, not jumpy, but coltish, then happy and talkative. I want to dance. I talk and bop and sway in place to some music. Hours later, as the effects wears off, my emotions move about like an automatic transmission slightly out of tune. As the sun comes up, I gently downshift into gentle tingles. Idling, I fall asleep.

Two [Somali] Canadian men suspected of drug smuggling at airport

By David Josar, The Detroit News, July 8, 1997.

• Two Canadian men are jailed without bond for allegedly trying to smuggle nearly 80 pounds of khat -- a powerful narcotic that is smoked like marijuana -- through Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
  Federal agents arrested Mohamad Nur and Ahmed Farah last week. Agents said the two put a drug-filled suitcase into their car at the airport. A U.S. magistrate in Detroit ordered them detained without bond until a preliminary examination starts later this month.
  A third man, John Darbyson of Toronto, is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond. All three have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to smuggle a controlled substance.
      Darbyson smuggled the khat into the United States on a flight from London, according to an affidavit filed by U.S. Customs Service Senior Special Agent James A. Dinkins.
  Customs agents said Darbyson, who was stopped and searched at the airport, told them he would get $400 after he gave the suitcase to Nur.
  Darbyson said he was told khat was legal and if he were caught he would only have to pay a tax, according to the affidavit. Darbyson cooperated and let agents follow him as he was greeted by Nur and escorted to a car driven by Farah.

Khat Project - Recommended Health Guide For Khat Users

The safest way to avoid any predictable health risk of excessive khat use is to avoid chewing but if one decides to continue with his/her habit, here are some hints that might be of help to minimise the risks:

1. Try to reduce your quantity of khat with reasonable intervals between sessions.
2. Use less Coke and black tea during your khat sessions to reduce your caffeine intake. Milk and ordinary clean water are positive substitutes.
3. Limit your smoking (if you smoke). Avoid congested sessions. Keep windows open to allow sufficient oxygen into your room.
4. Eat a balanced diet before and after your session. Avoid late night sessions whenever possible.
5. Always clean your teeth after every khat session and use regular mouth wash to reduce risks of oral cancer.
6. Avoid taking other drugs or alcohol during and after your session. Mixing drugs is highly dangerous.
7. Never take sleeping pills to help you sleep unless prescribed by your doctor.
8. Sit in a comfortable and relaxed position.
9. Take regular exercise. 30 minutes of vigorous walking per day could contribute to a lot to your health.
10. Holding the chewed material in your mouth for a long time increases your risk. This might finally lead to oral cancer.
11. Avoid khat chewing during the period or pregnancy. This might lead to serious health risks to your baby.