'Booster': The addictive drug wrecking lives of Kigali teens

The sun is scotching hot. As I make my way through Nyamirambo’s slums; just a few metres from the main highway, I walk past a filthy and dirty place near the infamous drug underworld locally known as ‘California.’ It’s in this place that I find a few wayward boys hanging out; smoking a ‘cocktail’, something I get to learn is a mixture of booster and marijuana. ‘Booster’ is a form of low-grade heroin, a drug that is extracted from a plant which grows in Afghanistan called papaver sommferum or the opium poppy. The young men I meet seem to be in a semi-conscious state, as the drug takes its toll on them; three teenagers are seated on the pavement smoking the drug while sharing a single bottle of Super Gin and they look suspiciously at me when I approach them. However, their worries are laid to rest when my guide who is well known among the addicts because he used to sell booster, before being taken to Iwawa Rehabilitation Centre, appears and we proceed to chat with the young men. Martin Nsengiyumva (not real name), one of young boys I found smoking booster explains that ‘booster’ gives a different kind of feeling, floating between illusion and reality. “When you smoke it, you fall into a trance which we call, Kuyoyoma. In this drug induced semi-conscious state; you can’t do anything; whenever I get high, the only thing that I feel like doing is sleep or rest in a quiet place,” he adds. A ‘booster’ addict can either smoke it alone on a silver foil or mix it with marijuana and then smoke the mix. A small piece of booster is sold at Rwf2000 but half can also be offered at Rwf1000. “This is the virus which is eating away our teenagers these days; when an addict has not smoked it for a while, they feel something they refer to as ‘going turkey’; the addicts feel cold and start trembling slightly. Users who mix the two don’t suffer worst side effects, however those who smoke it alone do not stand a chance, most are hooked and they neglect things like hygiene or work,” Nsengiyumva says. He recalls watching at least three people die from an over dose of booster. He says that the drug is smuggled into the country from Kampala in Uganda and it has been on the market for a long time. “This drug can make even the richest person broke because addicts will do anything to buy it; they will sell all their property in order to buy the drug. It is very addictive. Also, when they are high they are not able to work or attend school,” he adds. At Centre Ikirezi rehabilitation centre situated in Kicukiro district, there are a number of addicts that are being weaned from drugs. Briant Muhoza, a 23-year-old girl who has been in rehab for 9 months started smoking cigarettes at the age of 11. Later she was introduced to marijuana by some students and gradually she started using heroin. As the drugs took a toll on her, the relationship between her and her parents took a nose dive fall. At some point, she says that her parents wished that she could die and save them the heartache and shame that drugs had brought into their family. “The more I continued with the habit, the more I developed tolerance for it. Even though I hail from a rich family, I could steal everything in the house to cater for my habits. I would smoke 5 sniffs of the drug and one of it was going for Rwf5000, I knew I was dying but I could not kick out the habit,” she says Muhoza lost all her friends and no one wanted anything to do with her because of her addiction, but an old friend continued to encourage her to try Ikirezi rehab and today, she is on her way to recovery and sobriety. Yvonne Uwamahoro is the manager of Icyizere Psychotherapeutic Centre. She says that booster or heroin is extracted from a plant which grows in Afghanistan- which is harvested, dried and then processed. “In the factory, the dealers add some chemicals to increase the quantity of the drug. When they add chemicals, it becomes dangerous and may lead to death of its consumers,” she says Uwamahoro says that booster has both short and long term effects. Some of the short term effects include; withdrawal symptoms which means that a reduction of the drug in the body makes the body to fight to get what is missing. And, the long term effects include; respiratory infection, abdominal pain and muscle pain, loss of appetite and nausea. As she says, at their rehabilitation centre they educate drug users about the impact of their addiction and also help them to abandon the habit. “We do something called psychological support, where we help addicts to stop drug abuse by informing them about the effects that those drugs have on their body; we also provide medicine in form of tablets which help them to reduce their appetite for drugs,” she adds. Superintendent Modeste Mbabazi, the police spokesperson for Kigali city says that they are not aware of any heroin sold in Nyamirambo or anywhere else in the city. He says that the only drug they have been trying to control is marijuana and users are normally jailed for a brief period in order for them to reform or are taken to Iwawa for rehabilitation. Statistics by the Kigali Health Institute indicate that majority of the youth in the country (ages 14-35) have at one point consumed one or more types of drugs. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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'Booster': The addictive drug wrecking lives of Kigali teens