From: doctor1@gagme.chi.il.us (Patrick B. Hailey)
Subject: "U.S. Drug Laws Clash With Somali Tradition"
Originator: doctor1@gagme
Organization: Gagme Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois.
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 10:53:47 GMT

I usually don't reproduce entire newspaper articles here because a disability
in my left hand makes typing slow and difficult and mild dyslexia makes it
hard for me to check my own work (this is the perfect forum for me, eh?), but
I thought this would be of interest for several reasons.

Any word omissions or spelling errors (those familiar with my work know
there's likely to be many) are probably mine.

   Thanks awfully,
             Patrick
===========================================================================
Chicago Tribune 12/14/92 Sec 1 Pg 5

U.S. Drug Laws Clash With Somali Tradition
By Liz Sly

     MOGADISHU-If there is one thing Somalis are even more attached to than
their guns it is qat, the leafy green drug flown in daily from Kenya to
sustain the national habit of this beleaguered country.
     Throughout the worst of Somalia's problems, during the darkest days of
fighting and at the peak of the famine, the small planes carrying qat have
continued to land at Mogadishu's airports.
     By noon, the drug hits the markets in town, and by 4 p.m. practically
every Somali is munching away on the leaf, which acts as a mild stimulant and
appetite suppressant.
     But the arrival of U.S. Marines threatens to bring Somalia's national
habit into direct conflict with America's crusade against drugs.
     Military officials are saying they consider it within their duties to
seize qat from Somalis if they find it, even though their UN mandate does not
mention drugs.
     "As far as the American military is concerned, qat is an illegal
substance, according to U.S. law here," said Col. Fred Peck, spokesman for
Operation Restore Hope.  "If we see drugs we seize [them] and we have seized
some already."
     U.S. Marines have secured Mogadishu International Airport, and Peck said
any qat plane that attempted to land there would be seized.
     But qat planes continue to use Mogadishu West, a single dirt runway in
the desert some 30 miles out of town, which has not been secured by U.S.
forces.
     Most Somalis have welcomed the presence of U.S. troops, but they will not
readily tolerate attempts to interfere with their national habits.
     "They came to help us.  They haven't invaded to change our way of life,"
complained Dr. Mohammed M. Ali, a London-trained physician at Mogadishu's
Digfer Hospital and a casual user.
     In Somalia, qat chewing is above all a social activity, he said.  (It is
pronounced "cot" and sometimes spelled khat or kat).  Somalis gather at the
end of the day to chew and chat until they eventually fall asleep.
     A single day's supply costs a little less than $5 and comes in a small
bundle wrapped in banana leaves known as merdouf.
     But on the day of the U.S. deployment, prices nearly doubled because the
U.S. closed Somalia's airspace, preventing qat planes from landing.  The leaf
loses its effect 24 hours after picking, which is why it has to be flown in
daily.
     Qat users warn that any attempt to interfere with their drug supply could
erode the goodwill that the American force currently enjoys.
     The hated former president, Mohammed Siad Barre, banned qat for four
years, starting in 1985.  They were years in which rebellion against his rule
fomented around the country.
      "President Siad Barre stopped the qat and people were angry with him,"
said Hassan Jess Ahmed, an unemployed 50-year old who has been chewing the
leaf for 20 years.  "Maybe the people will be angry with America, too.  We
can't do anything without it. It's my culture to eat the leaf and I can't stop
it."
     Somalis see nothing wrong with qat, which they have been chewing for
centuries.  Instead, as Muslims they are worried that American forces will
introduce large quantities of alcohol into their country.
     Somalis believe qat is less dangerous than alcohol because it heightens
rather than reduces alertness.
     "When you drink whiskey you can't tell who is your brother and you will
attack everybody," said Hassan Alrashid Abdalla, a security official with one
of the factions.  "But when you chew the green grass you can remember who is
your brother."
     But the U.S. force sees qat as a threat, because of its stimulant effect
on Somalia's young gunmen.
     "I'm worried about a young teenage Somali who has been chewing qat all
afternoon and evening and wants to test U.S. forces," said Col. Greg Newbold,
commander of the Marine force.
     This is the first U.S. military campaign in which the planners have had
to consider the drug habits of their adversaries, Peck said.
     "We like to work at night because we see better than they do and because
we know from their drug habit that they are bummed out and hung over then," he
said.
     But Rick Grant, of the agency CARE, believes it would be far more
dangerous to try to interdict the drug than ignore it.
     "If they suspend the qat airlift, you'll have a whole population going
cold turkey and hyper," he said.

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