Human Rights Reporting
Spring 2001 Student Work
© 2001 by Charles Mitchell
Brooklyn Yemenis indignant over police raids to seize leaves of the stimulant khat
By Charles Mitchell
Most New Yorkers have never heard of it, but in Middle Eastern neighborhoods of the city the drug khat is used as often as coffee as a mild stimulant, and seen as just as harmless.
In parts of Brooklyn it is a way of life, yet many here do not
know it is banned. Small Yemeni restaurants and cafes enliven
this section of downtown Brooklyn. People wearing traditional
Islamic clothes mingle with second-generation Arab Americans wearing
T-shirts and Dockers khaki pants. Here, adults dine and talk and
eat malaweh, a dough-like food, much as they did in their homeland.
If they were back in Yemen, however, after the meal or as they
chatted, the men would engage in an ancient tradition of chewing
a plant called khat. The U.S. government calls it illegal, yet
most here call it as harmless as a Starbucks latte.
Up until last year, men in the neighborhood said they spoke freely
about khat. In fact, khat was sold openly in many of the restaurants
on Atlantic Avenue near Court Street. In April 2000, police raided
the Blue Province Restaurant in Brooklyn, after an undercover
officer bought khat there a few days earlier, said police. When
the investigation was complete, police arrested eight people for
the sale and use of khat, which the Federal government had classified
as an illegal drug in 1993. Usually those convicted of sale in
New York face up to seven years in prison. The DEA said the drug
produces “manic behavior with grandiose delusions” when
taken in large quantities.
Khat came to the attention of the U.S. federal government during
the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia. American soldiers
experimented with khat and the U.S. government felt that it was
partly responsible for their poor performance.
Still, khat is not high on the police list of targets because there is not a great demand for it and because of its low potency in small doses. In fact, the men arrested at the Blue Province Restaurant had their charges reduced to misdemeanors and they simply paid fines.
“The charges were reduced because most of the them weren’t aware it was an illegal substance,” said attorney James Palumbo, who represented some of the men who were detained.
The reason it is illegal, according to the DEA, is because khat contains cathinone, a controlled stimulant. Still, khat has to be chewed, and requires plenty of the leaves to produce amphetamine-like euphoric effects, according to a report from the now defunct United Nation’s Pan African electronic information exchange the Hornet.
“It has such a low potency that a suitcase full would probably be enough for one person,” said Dr. Scott Lukas, director of the behavioral psychopharmacology lab and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School.
Even though the Hornet said khat use could require drug detoxification, Lukas said khat was non-addictive. The problem with the authorities, he said, is that because people who use khat need such large amounts for themselves, police misinterpret the amount of the substance seized and think it must be for street sale. That is usually not the intent, he said. Large amounts of the leaves have to be chewed fresh or it loses its potency. Dried leaves will not produce the desired results, said Lukas. He also said even a pound of chewed khat just produces heightened awareness rather than euphoria.
“Users don’t get bored, they are able to retain attention and vigilance,” said Lukas, who has given expert testimony in court cases involving khat arrests.
When there are arrests, those detained are usually shocked. Like the men arrested at the Blue Province Restaurant, many in the Arab and Somalian communities who use the drug do not know that it is illegal in the United States. The men in the community who admitted to using or trying khat said that it has the same purpose and effect as coffee.
“It helps you concentrate and wakes you up,” said Hazza Shabanni, who was reluctant to say too much about khat because of fears that those who use it could be arrested. The Yemenite admitted that he uses the drug but said he considers it harmless.
Even Lukas agreed that khat was like coffee, but he said the ephedrine-like effects in khat are closer to a Marlboro cigarette than a cup of java.
“It’s more like a nicotine patch,” said Lukas, explaining that because the active ingredients are absorbed rather slowly you do not get huge amounts of it into the body at once.
The way the drug is delivered, said Lukas, makes it very hard for abuse to develop. It is much like coca leaves, he said, which have low potency until refined into cocaine or crack.
He said he did not believe khat should be outwardly banned but permitted under stringent regulations for cultural and religious use, and believed Western perceptions of khat as a drug were ethnocentric.
“In that particular culture, how it evolved was that someone had to stand guard for their tribe. If you fell asleep your tribe would get wiped out by a tiger or whatever,” Lukas said, explaining that historically khat use was fundamental to the existence of cultures that used it.
Today khat use is as a way of bonding in social situations, said one Brooklyn Arab who identified himself only as Fahmi. Khat is used predominantly by Arab men. They get together and chew khat much as American men gather at a bar and drink Budweiser, he said.
The Hornet said khat sells for between $300 to $400 a kilogram. On the streets of Yemen khat costs about $2 U.S. The street price in America is about $50 for a bundle of leaves big enough to get a high, said Fahmi, 23, who said he believed khat should be illegal because those who have too much just sit and do nothing.
“It’s like when you drink a lot you can’t walk and you can’t talk,” Fahmi said. He said he tried the drug, but it produced no effects on him.
His friend, who identified himself only as Mohammed, disagreed. He said he did not believe khat was a problem. He said those who use the drug are more productive.
“It gives you energy and makes you work and you don’t get addicted to it,” said Mohammed, 28. He has been in the U.S for eight years and does not use the drug here anymore. He said he does use it however, when he returns home to Yemen.
Since the arrests last year, things have changed in this neighborhood. Khat is no longer advertised in store windows and restaurants. It is still used, but most people, at least in this area of Brooklyn, now know it is illegal and are much more careful.