IN a first for the Grassy Park area, the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has seized a house which has been operating as a drug and alcohol outlet for more than 10 years.

After years of drug and liquor confiscations, the Grassy Park Police brought an application for forfeiture of the property to the AFU on the basis of criminal activity taking place on the property.

The property, at 236 Seventh Avenue in Grassy Park, is owned and let out by Hendrick April, and has been raided 87 times in the past five years.

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Younger children are experimenting with drugs more than ever in the history of South Africa, and it appears to be widely spread over the racial, cultural and economic sections of society.

This is according to Superintendant Lobo das Neves, who presented a paper on the subject to teachers and parents at a seminar in Johannesburg earlier this month.

"Children as young as 10 and 11 become addicted to heroin and 'tik'. No statistics are available as most schools and parents deal with their drugging kids outside the legal system. This is illegal. Research at various rehabilitation centres will show the decline in ages of their patients," says Das Neves, who worked in the South African Police Narcotics Bureau for 14 years, and has been responsible for some of the biggest cocaine busts in the country.

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In contrast to the rest of Southern Africa, intravenous drug users have become the group most vulnerable to the transmission of HIV in Mauritius. This has led the Mauritian government to introduce a syringe- and needle-exchange programme in a bid to stem HIV infection among Mauritian drug users.

Sexual transmission among heterosexuals is the most common way of HIV infection in Southern Africa, the region that has become the centre of the international HIV/Aids pandemic in recent years.

Mauritius is unusual in the region as the HIV prevalence rate among its population of 1,2-million people is less than 0,5%. Since 1987, 162 Mauritians have died from Aids-related illnesses. Currently, at least 2A 345 Mauritians are living with HIV/Aids, according to official figures, but some social workers estimate the number to be about 10A 000.

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If international warnings are a good gauge of things to come, our streets could soon be awash with more heroin than they have ever seen, cheaper than it has ever traded and purer than even the worst addict could hope for.

And all because Afghanistan is harvesting record amounts of opium that are saturating world markets. Last year's bumper harvest accounted for 92% of global illicit opium production and more than half of Afghanistan's GDP. Indicators suggest 2007 could yield an even greater harvest.

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A businessman from Brits and a Menlo Park company have instituted a damages claim for more than R5,8 million against Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, after police arrested the man and destroyed his "scientific" dagga crop.

Transvaal Deputy Judge President Jerry Shongwe granted leave to businessman Russel de Beer and the company Leading Prospect Trading to proceed with legal action for unlawful arrest and delictual damages, despite them not giving timeous notice of their claim.

According to court papers, the police raided De Beer's farm at Kameeldrift, near Brits, in February 2004, arrested him and destroyed his crops, stock and seeds.

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ACCORDING to recently released crime statistics, the Philippi Police Station oversees an area with the fifth highest rate of drug-related crime in Cape Town.

Statistics released by the Information Management Department of the South African Police Service last week reveal that the Philippi Police Station, which serves the Hanover Park and Philippi areas, reported 841 drug-related crimes for the period between April 2005 and March 2006.

Commenting on the report, Philippi Station Commissioner Director David Flemmet says it is favourable as they show the station's recovery rates.

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The national education department is to investigate the reasons for the worrying number of pupils who drop out of high school.

The department's directorgeneral, Duncan Hindle, says concern for pupils who do not attend schools has led the department to begin compiling statistics on pupils who drop out of schools every year.

According to high school principals in Nelson Mandela Bay, among the reasons for pupils dropping out is the difficulty in adapting to the new Grade 10 curriculum, which was implemented in January.

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BLOEMFONTEIN - The profile of patients attending the Aurora Alcohol and Drug rehabilitation centre in Bloemfontein has become younger over the years, the centre's director said on Wednesday.

"(Previously) you mainly worked with alcoholism at centres like this, the other stuff (drugs) were a side issue," said Gert Kruger.

"Today the majority of your patients are under 35 years of age."

Kruger said in the age category five to 20 years they had about 43 patients during the previous financial year that ended in March 2006.

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Pupils at Sastri College in Durban were furious after they were pulled out of classes and strip-searched by police during a drug raid on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Daily News after the incident the pupils, mostly girls, said they felt violated as they were asked to strip down to their underwear in the presence of policewomen and other pupils.

The pupils, who were called out during their lessons, said while they were not frisked by police, they "felt very uncomfortable" by the search.

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Heroin in Cape Town has become cheaper, more widely available and better marketed, experts have said in the wake of a damning UN report naming South Africa as a growing player in international drug trafficking.

Not only has the price of heroin dropped drastically in South Africa in the past few years - making it more accessible to teenagers and schoolchildren - it is also available in smaller and more affordable "fun-size" quantities.

A steady supply of the drug has been available in Cape Town for the first time, says Grant Jardine of the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre.

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Drug Syndicates Are Eyeing Schools As They Seek To Grow A Market Of Young Heroin Addicts.

The street price of heroin is now between R30 and R50 a gram - less than a tenth of its price five years ago and half the price of a bank bag of good-quality dagga.

In Gauteng and Pretoria alone, hundreds of heroin addicts - some as young as nine - are dying of overdoses every month, according to a police drug expert.

'The dealers often target kids to deal for them' Desperate schoolchildren, prepared to do anything for their next hit, are forming criminal heroin "clubs" to beg or steal money for their addictions.

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Durban - South Africa's education system has been blamed for school violence that has left one pupil dead and another with multiple skull fractures.

A sense of spirituality and humanity was lacking in South Africa's educational system, said a Durban-based anti-drug forum on Wednesday.

Teachers lacked empathy. The educational system needed to stop churning out workers, said forum chairperson Sam Pillay.

A 16-year-old boy died when he was taken off life-support machines after being injured in a fist-fight on the South Coast on Saturday.

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With tik abuse more than doubling in the Wsetern Cape in the past year and 80% of its users being under 21, it is disturbing that only 7% of referrals to clinics are made by schools, the SA National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) has said.

More than half of those needing drug or alcohol rehabilitation are referred to clinics by their families or check themselves in.

Data on drug and alcohol abuse during the past year, gathered from the six Sanca treatment centres in Cape Town and that in George, were released yesterday.

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Cracking down on illegal drugs is easier said than done. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed their habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

Punitive drug laws have little, if any, deterrent value. Consider the experience of the US, the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated. Police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs in schools and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties in the US, while failing miserably at preventing drug use.

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The draft of South Africa's second five-year plan to combat drug abuse proposes controversial measures such as needle-exchange programmes and methadone treatment, writes Wendell Roelf

With children as young as 10 experimenting with drugs, authorities have mooted potentially controversial new measures to combat abuse.

Needle-exchange programmes to help reduce the spread of HIV infection among intravenous drug users and methadone maintenance treatment for heroin addicts are suggested in the national drug masterplan.

A draft of the plan has been drawn up under the aegis of the Central Drug Authority (CDA).

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On Monday South Africa will join the world in highlighting the socio-economic challenges posed by the abuse of substances on International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

South Africa continues to experience increased levels of substance abuse, and the age of first experimentation with substances has dropped to between nine and 10 years.

Appropriately, the theme for this year is "Children and Drugs", with the slogan "Drugs are not child's play".

Several activities will take place to promote awareness and the main event is in Umbumbulu in Durban on June 29.

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Tafelsig has overtaken Manenberg as the area in the province with the highest drug consumption, says Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool.

Speaking at the opening of the country's first public opiate detoxification unit at the Stikland Hospital yesterday, Rasool said the administration had identified the 10 worst drug areas.

Tafelsig was in top position, followed by Manenberg. Other areas include Belhar, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Paarl.

Tik was the drug of choice and the entry-level drug.

"Tik leads to heroin (abuse). Over 18 000 people in the Western Cape are addicted to it. It is a frightening statistic. When tik cannot satisfy them any more, they move on to heroin."

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Prisoners from Voorberg Prison in Porterville say that a group of warders is running amok, assaulting prisoners, starving them and selling tik and dagga to inmates.

Inmate Salmon Tities, 25, who is also a prison lecturer, alleges he has a paralysed hand and foot after he was assaulted by corrupt warders for refusing to sell drugs.

And other prisoners in the hospital section of Medium B allege that the warders have seriously beaten up at least three other prisoners for fighting with members of the 28s gang.

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Experts close to the action believe a battle for territory or the desire for revenge are behind the latest flare-up of gang warfare in Hanover Park, which has seen seven gangsters murdered and left the community terrorised.

Residents, crime experts and community leaders have put forward suggestions that the conflict may be linked to a fight for drug trade turf.

This could have even begun in prison and then resumed on the streets.

Another theory is that some top gangsters released from jail, including Abduragmaan Engel of the Americans, may be seeking revenge. Engel's brother was killed some time ago.

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Several people have already died in a running gang war in Hanover Park and now the Ghetto Kids are digging in and preparing for more attacks.

Members of the Ghetto Kids vowed yesterday to "defend the neighbourhood", even if it meant a loss of life.

They admitted that since Philippi police had arrested five alleged gangsters and seized firearms and ammunition at the weekend, there had been no shootings but they expected more trouble to flare up.

Residents in Hanover Park also fear an upsurge in the warfare between the Ghetto Kids and the notorious Americans gang and other gangs supporting them this week.

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