Zimbabwe grapples with mental illness amid rampant drug abuse

HARARE, Zimbabwe

At first, he said their conversation was cordial, but then all of a sudden, 16-year-old Jemitius Gawe shouted for help.

“Help granny! Help please granny!” Jemitius said, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Then he said his 23-year-old cousin, Marlon Chikwekwe, had threatened to stab him for no apparent reason.

But just a day before, Chikwekwe had been spotted by Jemitius downing a 100-milliliter bottle of BronCleer, a well-known cough syrup.

According to Jemitius, Chikwekwe then collapsed and fell into a deep sleep right in the middle of the yard at their home in Glen Norah, a densely populated suburb of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

Even as he woke up later, Jemitius said his cousin’s behavior had changed.

“He acted strangely. I thought he was out of his mind. In fact, I thought he was now mad, to be precise,” Jemitius told Anadolu Agency.

Maddened by drugs

When Chikwekwe was later taken to the hospital, Jemitius said a specialist doctor confirmed he had been abusing drugs for a long time, retarding his mental faculties.

So even the night he threatened to stab Jemitius, the 16-year-old said it was not surprising, for he had witnessed his cousin falling prey to drug abuse.

“I had seen him taking BronCleer, and at once, I knew it wasn’t going to end well. Each night, he would down one or two bottles of the cough syrup before drowning into some death-like sleep,” said Jemitius.

The two cousins’ grandmother, 79-year-old Thandiwe Dhliwayo, said she tried several times to warn Chikwekwe against taking illicit drugs, but to no avail.

“It’s clear he is now mentally ill, and his condition was explained to us by a doctor who attended to him that he had been abusing drugs for over a year,” Dhliwayo told Anadolu Agency.

Psychiatrist Delma Gumede said drug addicts behave almost the same when the drugs affect their brains.

Strange conduct of drug addicts

“For instance, they claim to see things or hear voices telling them to do certain things and they also become violent from nowhere and can be very dangerous,” Gumede told Anadolu Agency.

In Zimbabwe, drugs like BronCleer have not spared the mental faculties of many youths like Chikwekwe, even as BronCleer itself is a cough syrup containing a combination of alcohol and codeine, which is also an effective treatment for coughs.

BronCleer contributing to mental illnesses

Yet BronCleer has proven to be more than just a treatment drug for many like Chikwekwe, who for over a year has overdosed on the drug, resulting in his deranged mental state.

“After misusing BronCleer, which he couldn’t part with at every given opportunity, it subsequently became an addiction for Marlon, and that’s why you now see him scruffy and obviously insane,” said Dhliwayo.

In fact, according to experts like Gumede, the BronCleer abused by many like Chikwekwe contains codeine, which when abused, one’s body develops an acceptance for the drug, meaning the drug will not work as efficiently and one will have to take more to get relief.

BronCleer taking leads to addiction

“As time moves, this acceptance will turn into a dependence, with one’s mind only functioning normally when one takes codeine, which then means at such a point, one certainly would be more likely to develop an addiction,” Gumede said.

Typical of how the drug took its toll on Chikwekwe, Gumede also said that codeine abuse distresses one’s physical and mental health, leading to anxiety, aggression, hallucinations, depression, and paranoia.

While many Zimbabwean young people like Chikwekwe battle with mental illness due to illicit drugs, that has not deterred adults like 39-year-old Lennon Shumba.

What Shumba says as he coughs and puffs at the crystal meth he takes is rather incoherent.

Melanie, his 30-year-old sister, at their home in the crowded suburb of Kuwadzana, where Shumba has become confined over the past three years, said he was now mentally ill due to drug abuse.

“Mad as he is, he still takes crystal meth, sometimes with local teenagers, and they laugh raucously each time they take the drug,” Melanie told Anadolu Agency.

Scientifically known as methamphetamine, crystal meth drawn from disused energy-saver lightbulbs that are cleaned and sold to drug users for $1 each is a highly addictive stimulant used for its powerful euphoric effects.

Harsh economy spurs drug abuse

But it is this country’s harsh economy that has driven many people to drugs, according to development experts.

“Many people, especially youths, have no jobs and they have switched to illicit drugs to escape the harsh economic realities. But unfortunately, many have fallen mentally ill in the process,” Henry Hamandishe, an independent development expert based in Harare, told Anadolu Agency.

Yet even as mental health cases rise due to drug abuse in this southern African nation, civil society leaders have remained adamant, calling for drug policy reform.

Drug addicts have rights

“We stand for the rights of people who use drugs and advocate for drug policy reform in Zimbabwe, Wilson Box, the director for the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drugs Network (ZCLDN), told Anadolu Agency.

Established a decade ago, ZCLDN is a registered national initiative working in Zimbabwe with a mission to advocate for effective strategies for addressing problems associated with drug use here.

But Box acknowledged that many young people here were taking to illicit drugs.

"We have seen an increase in the number of youths using illicit drugs in the country as they are readily available on the streets and most of the users end up with mental health issues,” he said.

Based on independent research conducted by the Health and Empowerment Trust, an NGO, 55% of Zimbabwe’s youths have been to mental health institutions owing to drug misuse.

Lack of enforcement of existing laws raises mental health cases

Tungamirai Zimhondi, the director for Youth Against Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (YADD) in Zimbabwe, pinned the blame for rising mental health cases on the lack of enforcement of existing laws regarding alcohol consumtion.

“Alcohol is easily available and sold in our communities also very cheap, especially beer. No one asks for IDs at points of sale. There is a lack of enforcement of existing laws,” Zimhondi told Anadolu Agency.

He said in Zimbabwe, alcohol is advertised as an inspirational lifestyle and its consumption is promoted as normal and glamourous.

“Due to the prevailing economic hardships in the country, young people who should be economically active are being drawn into a state of non-productive dependence on alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs that have serious health and consequences,” added Zimonte.