A total of nearly 58 000 South Africans were questioned for the latest annual Anti Drug Alliance’s survey and report. And it seems a lot of people out there are doing a lot of naughty things.

In fact, middle-class South Africans are indulging themselves with one-in-three using an illegal substance for recreational purposes.

Anti Drug Alliance chief executive Quintin van Kerken says we have lost the war on drugs:

The fact is that we have lost the war, and all that the government is doing is spending billions on catching a few criminals who are trafficking large quantities of drugs.

A total of 57 809 responses were received for the survey, of which 35 433 of those were completed online, and 22 376 other responses collected through e-mail, phone calls and other social media campaigns.

Van Kerken continued that the agency also spoke to police, paramedics and drug centres to get a picture of the situation:

It showed us as a nation under siege. The reality is that everyone seemed to be saying the war against drugs was lost, that South Africa had been hit by a drug tsunami, and that fighting the problem was ineffective.

These are some of the interesting bits from the report:

The majority of respondents lived in Gauteng and the Western Cape, were aged 22 to 45, were employed full-time and either drank no alcohol or drank two to three times a week.

Just over a third of the respondents – 34% – admitted to taking drugs themselves.

The majority of users favoured dagga (32%) followed by cocaine, cat and LSD.

Most users spent up to R200 a month on drugs, but 13% spent up to R500 while a further 13% spent up to R3 000 a month. Two per cent spent up to R10 000 a month on drugs.

Most of those surveyed did not have tattoos, did not smoke cigarettes, did not watch porn and did not gamble.

Nearly 80% of those surveyed said they believed South Africa did have a drug problem and thought the government was not doing enough to solve this.

The Anti Drug Alliance decided to interview teenagers personally, and spoke to 2 512 teens from various schools.

Of these, 69% said drugs were available at their school, and 34% said they had used drugs in the previous six months.

Comparing the results with the previous year’s survey, the alliance found that dagga use was up 11%, nyaope was up 9% and tik abuse had nearly doubled in the past year (up 88%), while cat was up 82%.

Also noted was the fact that many cocaine addicts had felt the need to graduate to cat, and that LSD and shrooms had also surged in popularity. Rehab centres had an overall increase of 25% new customers in the last year, with some people returning up to nine times.

[Source: IOL]