Khat in the Horn of Africa: historical perspectives and current trends.

AIM OF THE STUDY: This article looks at the history of the expansion of khat consumption from the traditional chew regions to Western countries and assesses the implication of possible international control for its use and trade in the Horn of Africa. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten months of initial field work in Ethiopia, three follow up field work, archival work in Ethiopia and Europe, as well as study of available relevant literature. RESULTS: The debut of khat in the West in the 1980s was initially greeted with disdain and indifference. Authorities dismissed it on grounds that the mode of consumption, chewing the leaves for an extended period of time to extract a miniscule amount of the active ingredient, would not be appealing to Western users. Following the Mogadishu debacle of 1993, as depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down, authorities in the West began to express concern that khat was a new drug of abuse. Its trade was increasingly linked with terrorism because of its association with immigrants from the traditional khat use countries in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Amid hysteria and moral panic, many Western countries classified khat as a highly potent controlled substance, rendering its possession, cultivation, and trade illegal. CONCLUSION: This article argues that more and more Western governments, out of panic rather than definitive evidence of harm, will be instituting national laws banning the leaves, but khat will not be placed under international control because the scientific evidence of harm is unlikely to rise to a critical mass that would justify its illegalization. States in the source countries would continue to tolerate khat because banning it would be disastrous from an economic and social welfare standpoint. Because of its ambiguous legal position and the unstable nature of its active ingredient, cathinone, khat would not be successfully commoditized as a global commodity or transformed into a highly concentrated illicit drug. In this situation, khat would continue to be chewed in the traditional-use areas of the Red Sea littoral marketed by local syndicates who work with a large network of petty commodity traders.

Scourge of life or an economic lifeline? Public discourses on khat (Catha edulis) in Ethiopia.

Until the turn of the 20th century, only the religious and political elite of the city of Harer in eastern Ethiopia chewed khat. Its consumption has since spread to all regions of Ethiopia and all social groups, irrespective of religious affiliation, gender category, and age bracket, have taken up the habit. In a few decades khat has been transformed from a shrub grown for domestic consumption to the region's predominant cash crop; from a substance chewed on religious and cultural occasions to a visible and pervasive social habit; from a product sold in local markets to the most profitable commodity, whose trade involves millions of farmers, traders, and other service providers in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The growing importance of khat has engendered a heated national debate in Ethiopia concerning the legal status of the plant. Opponents contend that khat is a health hazard with deleterious socioeconomic consequences and seek a complete ban to curb its "evil influence" on the country's youth and future. Others oppose any policy that ignores khat's micro- and macroeconomic benefits. This article outlines the positions the protagonists in this debate have staked out, critically evaluates their merits, and concludes by urging a public discourse on how to use the prosperity that the khat industry has generated to engender a sustainable economic development.