Khat

Records confirm that for the past 500 years or more, khat (Catha edulis) has been cultivated in the highlands of Yemen, Ethiopia, and Kenya, where the stimulant effects of the leaves are much enjoyed. Consumption was traditionally subject to cultural conventions, which have been suspended in recent years, under the impact of market forces and modern transport. There is now an ongoing debate over finding an adequate system of regulation, in part inspired by international drug control agencies.

The effects of khat are often described as like those of a naturally occurring amphetamine. It gives users a short period of intense clarity and loquacious sociability, followed by a more reflective and melancholic state, which finally gives way to a depressive state. The leaves of the plant are harvested early in the morning, rolled into bundles weighing around 250 grams, often rolled into banana leaves and sprinkled with water for preservation, and then taken to market.

Speed is of the essence, as the two most important psychoactive alkaloids identified, cathine and cathinone, break down within 72 hours. The leaves are chewed, one to three bundles at a session, in a bolus tucked into the cheek. According to taste and custom, the spent detritus is swallowed or spat out. Historically, khat was only available to farming communities and surrounding regions. Geographic constraints were reinforced by politically and religiously motivated restrictions. In Ethiopia the Orthodox church prohibited use to its brethren, while the Wahabist Islamic movement forbade khat use as haraam. In Yemen and Ethiopia many Islamic scholars took a different perspective, harnessing khat to inspire Islamic poetry, music, and learning.

During the colonial period European administrators across the “khat belt” introduced new controls, inspired by concern over the dissipation of resources, the diversion of precious resources, the drain on foreign exchange in importing regions, and the alleged link between khat and anticolonial activities. These formal controls, beginning in British Somaliland (1921–57), were all eventually suspended for being unworkable. French Djibouti (1956–57), South Yemen (1957–58), and Kenya (1945–1956) followed.

Khat was first brought to the attention of the League of Nations in the early 1930s by a British representative. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s organisations as diverse as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the League of Arab Nations, and the ICAA discussed the status of khat. Eventually, the Committee on Narcotic Drugs recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) review khat in 1971. The subsequent research identified cathine and cathinone as the main psychoactive ingredients. Describing the effects of khat chewing as analogous to amphetamine, the two ingredients were assessed as meeting the criteria for control and recommended for scheduling in 1985. Notwithstanding calls by field officers from United Nations agencies and the International Narcotic Control Board to review the status of khat, the situation remains one where the extraction of the active ingredients for nonmedical purpose remains illegal, but the production, distribution, and consumption of the vegetable khat is left to national determination.

Renewed efforts to control khat owe much to correlations between use and a range of physical and mental health conditions. Successive reviews, including by the United Kingdom Advisory Council on Drugs (2005) and the WHO (2006) could establish at best an association between different conditions and excessive use by vulnerable individuals. The emerging consensus is therefore that the health risks posed by khat do not merit closer controls. There is, however, concern over the potential of abusing synthetic preparations extracted from khat. So far this has been limited to the temporary popularity of Haligat, sold as a legal high in Israel. Most Western markets, it has been argued, are already adequately supplied with a range of stimulant drugs.

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