The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 265 No 7104 p50
July 8, 2000 Letters

Khat

Further information

From Mr M. Yamany, and others

SIR,-We read with interest the article by "Onlooker" on the Khat menace (PJ, May l3, p710) and the parent article by Peter Kandela in the Lancet.¹ We would like to provide some further information about the subject.
The use of khat is found to be very common wherever migrants from khat-chewing countries are found, such as immigrants from the Yemen and the East African nations of Somalia and Ethiopia.^2-3 This includes European countries, as well as the United States and Canada.⁴ Cathinone is unstable, so khat must be chewed within two to three days of harvesting. The improvement of air transportation has helped make khat available around the world to consumers. It usually arrives wrapped in banana leaves to improve freshness.
In the United Kingdom, the use of khat is not illegal (it is not a prohibited substance), while cathinone and cathine are controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and scheduled as Class C Controlled Drugs. We are aware of groups of khat users in London,³ Cardiff, Newport and Birmingham (personal observations) and Sheffield (Al-Abdi, 1998, personal communication). One of us (PJN) has also witnessed a group of khat chewers in session in the general waiting area of a large UK airport.
Khat was freely available in Saudi Arabia prior to 1971, when it was classified as a narcotic and decreed illegal (ie, further cultivation, commercial activity and personal use of khat was banned). The basis for this change in law was the local religious teaching (Islam), which strongly recommends the prevention of harm to the individual or society. The Saudi government has applied very severe punishments against users and smugglers, which can include the death penalty. This has been broadly accepted by the population throughout the country, with the exception of the south-west region of Jazan. In this area, which borders the Yemen, khat has been cultivated for centuries. The use of khat continues to be widespread in Jazan city and the surrounding country (personal observation of MY).
The Saudi government has enacted a further law prohibiting the expansion of khat cultivation within the Faifa mountain area (near to Jazan city), which is now controlled and supervised by the Ministry of the Interior under a local administration called the Faifa Development Authority (established 1978). The authority has offered financial and practical assistance to khat cultivators to develop alternative crops, such as fruit trees. This has been largely ignored (personal discussion of MY with the head of the authority, Mr Al-Muqren). With the assistance of Al-Mugahidin soldiers, the authority now guards the mountain 24 hours a day and keeps close watch on people and cars coming from the mountain, in order to detect khat smugglers. However, their control is ineffective within the area as khat is still used in houses or cafes in the Faifa mountain, where visitors from Jazan city and other towns can come to the mountain cafes and chew khat as they wish. They then leave without taking any khat with them.
We agree with "Onlooker" and Kandela that the main problem with khat use is the amount of time the chewers spend (waste?) using khat and the inappropriate energies used in its cultivation. The British Government has chosen to ignore this situation, which only affects specific small immigrant communities. The Saudi government has attempted to control the situation, but has so far not achieved this in the extreme south of the country. It seems to us that the Yemen government will have an almost impossible task to control the situation in their country, where there is clearly little support for change from the people.

Mamdoah Yamany
David J. Temple
Paul J. Nicholls
Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University

References