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Banning
Khat the Right Move |
With the lack of law and order in Somalia
for the last sixteen or so years, many drugs
chief among which is Khat, have found a
permanent home in the Somali nation’s
psyche. Millions of badly needed shillings
or US Dollars are wasted everyday in the
importation and consumption of this narcotic
leaf both in Somalia and Ogaden.
While the Somalis everywhere from Ogaden to
Somalia are busy munching on the leafy
narcotic drug under the afternoon shade
everyday, Kenyan and Ethiopian entrepreneurs
have had a field day in collecting
unparalleled profits they have never seen
before the start of the Somali civil strife.
Not only does the importation of Khat
deprive the local economies hardly needed
cash and hard currency but this imported
Khat negatively impacts all facets of
familial life. There are many documented
cases of families going hungry while either
the father or the mother, a new phenomenon,
spend the family’s meager resources towards
buying Khat.
In the June 2006 issue of the Journal of the
Royal Society of Medicine, the effects of
the consumption of Khat were documented
scientifically. According to the lead
researchers Dr Sagar Saha and Dr Clare
Dollery,
long term [Khat] use results in increasing
risk of heart attack, liver damage as well
gingivitis and tooth loss.
Research also indicates [they add] that
heavy khat chewing increases the risk of
esophageal cancer.
Somalis everywhere have seen the ills of
Khat. There is not a single Somali family
that has not experienced the side effects of
Khat either directly or indirectly. Worse
many places in the western world such as the
United States of America have started to
rigorously enforce the drug statutes in the
Common Law, which criminalizes the
importation and the consumption of Khat.
Considering all the ills of Khat and its
health and societal impact, we welcome the
recent total ban imposed on both the
importation and the consumption of Khat by
the rulers of many parts of Somalia.
Although difficult at first attempt, we
believe that both the money and the time
spent on the consumption of Khat can be
better spent towards the resolution of both
personal as well as societal problems faced
by the Somalia nation.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
Nov 17, 2006 |
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