Eight-year-old tests positive for deadly drug mix

Concerns about drug use in the Cape Flats are growing after an eight-year-old from Elsies River, a Cape Town suburb, tested positive for a concoction of hard drugs.

The child tested positive for a hard drug concoction consisting of mandrax, tik, heroin and cocaine. Leonsdale ward councilor Franchesca Walker spotted the case. She said community workers who tried to help the child were left “stunned”. This after the boy tested positive for four types of drugs, according to IOL. The Tehillah Center, a drug treatment center, conducted a drug test on the boy. After the positive hard drug test results, they immediately informed social workers.

Sister Magda Kleyn, CEO of the Tehillah Center, said she was “very, very shocked” by the situation.

“I was working in my parish when (the child’s) grandmother came up to me and told me that her eight-year-old grandson was missing. I searched and searched but couldn’t find it. Later that day, while working in another area of ​​Leonsdale, community workers spotted him and I tried to talk to him when I realized something was wrong.

Franchesca Walker, Leonsdale Ward Councilor

HARD DRUGS POSE A HUGE PROBLEM IN CAPE FLATS

Tehillah Center staff members investigated the matter. They found that local school teachers and parents are distraught over drug use among children in Leonsdale, an area of ​​Elsies River. Cocaine, in particular, is becoming a very big problem.

Currently, children can buy cocaine for as little as R50. They can also purchase a single sniffing line for as little as R20. Cocaine is becoming more and more accessible and cheap.

“All of a sudden cocaine has flooded the Cape Flats drug market and it’s becoming a big problem. Cocaine is not a drug normally found in our communities, as it has always been a very expensive drug, mainly used in wealthy areas.

Abie Isaacs, Cape Flats Security Forum

The question is: what do drug dealers add to cocaine to “dilute” it so they can sell it at such a low price?

HARD DRUG EPIDEMIC

In May, the Metropolitan Police arrested three men in Parow for drug possession after stopping them for speeding. The vehicle contained tik, dagga and cocaine hidden in a compartment. Officers discovered a plastic bag containing 42 packets of tik, 29 packets of dagga and three medium packets of cocaine.

Less than a week later, the SAPS Anti-Economic and Extortion Team found cocaine with an estimated street value of more than R50 000 in a house on Uitenhage Street in Portlands. Shortly after, the same police unit confiscated a drug consignment consisting of cocaine, mandrax and crystal meth from a dealer in Langa.

Municipal committee member for safety and security JP Smith praised officers for making progress in the fight against the drug trade that is flooding Cape Town’s neighborhoods. He added that each drug seizure is a step in the right direction. Drug use leads to many other problems such as violence, abuse and crime.

“Every drug taken off the street is potentially a person saved from an overdose or prevented from taking that first dose and becoming addicted. »

JP Smith