Doping, dealing and dying
Investigations have shown dealers are simplifying provision by using predetermined drop-off points and using delivery systems that will place drugs in a users hands, while the user never leaves the comfort of their home.
The flourishing drug trade in Newcastle is cause for concern.
Drugs are more readily and easily available in town compared to five years ago.
Investigations have shown dealers are simplifying provision by using predetermined drop-off points and using delivery systems that will place drugs in a users hands, while the user never leaves the comfort of their home.
Crack, smack, coke, cat, dope, meth, woonga, Rohypnol, Mandrax; name it and Newcastle’s dealers can supply.
Rohypnol, better known by its street name of Roofies, is one of the latest type of drug to be found on the streets.
“We started off making deliveries and giving our services easily to the people. I would meet customers in town, give them their stuff and go. But that was dangerous for me. Now, everyone comes to me, I tell them where to meet me and when,” explained a dealer.
He continued: “Other guys like to deal from home but this is dangerous. Then there’s the guys who deal in town, who are starting up or just need the extra money.”
Most commonly dealers disguise themselves as hawkers. The dealers stash their drugs in gutters, or among their stock.
A local user spoke about what the influx of drugs meant to him.
He explained that he hated having to buy marijuana that was laced with other chemical substances, but this was the stock available.
“I used to go to Jo’burg to get my weed and blue boys (Mandrax) before. Now, I have a dealer here who I know gets me good stock, like unsprayed greenhouse” he said.
However, while this user has found a dealer who can supply him with unlaced natural high Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) marijuana, other users cannot do the same.
A sample of ‘weed’ bought from a low-level dealer, showed marijuana fibres coated in a blue liquid.
While coloured fibres on marijuana have become common, and the colours often represent a type of ‘weed’, such as Malawi Gold, or Transkei Red, this blue substance was shown to be a mixture of methylated spirits and paraffin.
A mid-level dealer explained: “I wholesale to my good customers and many other dealers, so my products are always clean. But these guys lower down, they mix and cut other stuff in. Like they’ll take 10 grams of good weed from me, and mix it with a weaker strain weed that has been dipped to make them look the same.”
According to the dealer, the drug trade in Newcastle was steadily on the increase, and he speculated that weekly more than R100 000 was spent on drugs through the network of dealers he knew personally.
