High school students readily access weed cookies, drugs

Kajiado, Kenya: At a recent meeting of heads of secondary schools in Kajiado, the principals and deputies pored through different issues affecting their students and among the top concerns was a lethal thorn in their midst; drug use among the students.

While various teachers talked about this problem, Maasai Boys’ Secondary’s deputy principal Charles Mbatia dissociated his boys from the drug problem.

“I haven’t had any case of drug use among my students. We have strict rules here and have very limited interaction between the students and the outside world during school days. We thoroughly inspect them after outings and we also do impromptu checks in the dorms,” he said.

The United Methodist Church in Kenya, when rolling out an awareness campaign on substance abuse and related violence in schools found out and used as the basis for their campaign facts that can turn any parent numb with fear. Their studies found out that six per cent of the youth had their first exposure to drugs and other abused substances while in high school. Further, they noted that at least 30 per cent of the youth that are into drugs had exposure while in primary school. The programme targeted young people aged ten to 18 within the United Methodist Church in Kenya.

Where do these young people get the drugs? Bakeries, it turns out, dispense weed (bang) in cake or cookies. This writer set out to prove that some bakeries indeed sell drug-laced confectioneries. I visit a shop in town and conspiratorially place my order. The question draws a knowing look from the ladies at the counter before they smile then call a man, who emerges from a separate room to speak to me. I get my order, pay and walk away. It is that simple. They make weed cakes and cookies hush-hush and usually on order. A young man selling in one of those shops tells us that the number of young people asking for weed cake is high. Most of them are in their late teens or early 20s, and both boys and girls are involved.

Hidden at a movie store along Tom Mboya Street in the city, a young man, preferring to offer only one name, Kevo, says he is 22 years old but that he smoked his first joint of weed at 17 when in high school. He tried it out during the holidays and has been a user since. He also drinks.

“Weed is easy to access than weed cake or those other hard stuff-heroin and cocaine. With Sh20, you have a stick of weed. Weed cake on the other hand is between Sh800 and 1,500 a kilogramme,” he says.

Does he know where to get weed cake? He smiles.

“Try the estates; it is easier to get them from there, especially at house parties.”

He says he eats a little weed cake, smokes a little weed and drinks a little alcohol for fun. His friends, some of them in high school, do it too. Is that all he uses, has he tried cocaine or heroin?

“No way. Too expensive. Try those youngsters in Karen or Hurlingham or Westie (Westlands). Rich kids use them over there. But I have  smoked shisha, most birthday parties have weed cake and shisha,” he says.

At Karen Police Station, the lady OCPD, Monica, does not want to talk about arrest of drug suspects, preferring to use bureaucracy to evade questions.

The reality of the matter is that these youngsters, some of whom partake of shisha, have taken heroin and cocaine too. Just early this week, Nacada banned 19 shisha flavours for containing cocaine, heroin and bang.