Pre-teen drug use ‘on the rise’

THE facts are sobering: instead of playing with dolls, cars and computer games, children aged 12 and younger are using drugs and alcohol, and the problem is growing.

The South African Anxiety and Depression Group (Sadag) said 12 was the average age for drug dependency in South Africa, while half of the country’s teenagers also used alcohol.

One case involved an 8-year-old methamphetamine addict whose mother, a sex worker, said it was easier “to buy him a bag of meth for R50 a day than to feed him”.

Age, peer pressure, low cost and the easy accessibility of drugs and alcohol were cited as major risk factors for substance abuse among adolescents and young adults.

Sadag has launched the country’s first WhatsApp chat platform for those who need information or help with substance abuse.

The Ke Moja WhatsApp platform will be operated in partnership with the national Department of Social Development.

Sadag press officer Kerry Phillips said providing multiple forms of contact to the youth meant they could easily reach the organisation without their conversation being overheard.

The WhatsApp platform will provide live access to a trained Sadag counsellor, and basic counselling, as well as self-help tips and tools, for dealing with substance abuse for themselves or their loved ones.

“We need to engage more with young people, get them help and provide support wherever they are and try to prevent the substance abuse problems from getting worse,” said Phillips.

Between April 2021 and March 2022, Sadag’s substance abuse helpline received nearly 90 000 calls from people aged 18 to 35, an increase of 107% from 2020.

Childline KZN acting director Adeshnie Naicker said helplines did work and it was important to give children access to as many avenues of help as possible.

She said Childline had been operating a helpline for several years and they received an average of 8 000 calls a month.

“While we do get hoax calls, 80% of the calls are legitimate.”

Naicker said the number of young people addicted to substances was increasing and while they had tried to create awareness, it had barely put a dent in the stats.

She said combating addiction was a community effort and people should not be afraid to “upset the apple cart” when trying to help.

Often children who looked older than 18 were allowed to buy alcohol at bottle stores, and in some cases liquor store owners sold alcohol to children who were obviously under-age.

Naicker said cough syrup, glue and whoonga (a mixture of lowgrade heroin and other additives) were the most common drugs used by children, especially those who live on the street because it was cheap and easily accessible.

Afrika Tikkun Foundation chief executive Alef Meulenberg said the less hope there was in society, particularly relating to youth unemployment, the more likely the increase in social ills such as substance abuse.

“People at a younger age are starting to feel hopeless,” he said.

Meulenberg said helping the youth complete their schooling when they fell behind, and creating more economic opportunities for them, was crucial. They also needed to see more examples of young people in their communities making positive progress.

Pieter Stols, programme manager at the Freedom Recovery Centre in Nigel, Gauteng, said he had been involved in a case in which a mother had given her son his first daggal at 9 years old and an ecstasy tablet at 12.

He said while people were quick to say addicts brought addiction upon themselves, the propensity to use drugs was developed in a child’s formative years, between the ages of two and 14.

Stols said alcohol was the most widely available legal drug in the world, followed by cigarettes and cannabis.

“In our experience the problem that is on the increase is that of co-occurring disorders. This is where substance use disorder co-exists with mental and medical health issues.”

“However, literature suggests that the young brain (12, 13, 14) getting exposed to THC, stands a bigger chance of developing schizophrenia than an adult starting to experiment with cannabis. About one in four people are genetically predisposed to develop schizophrenia because of smoking weed,” Stols said.

He said that in disadvantaged communities, nyaope (a mixture of low-grade heroin, cannabis and other substances) was the bigger problem, followed by methamphetamine, while alcohol was the gateway drug.

Molo Songololo’s Cape Town director, Patric Solomons, said there were few community resources addressing substance use, abuse and addiction problems in youngsters in poorer places.

He said alcohol and drug abuse and dependencies were growing in areas such as Beaufort West, Atlantis and Delft.

“Many sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation victims Molo Songololo works with have been given alcohol, and in some cases dagga as part of the sexual grooming and actual abuse process. In a few cases they have been given other hard drugs to manipulate and control,” he said.