Tik time bomb – socio-economic tragedy

I know that much has been written about drug abuse. These are my personal recollections, writes Brenton Geach.

Cape Times multi-award winning photo-journalist BRENTON GEACH has captured many pivotal events in the history of Cape Town and South Africa. But one story draws him back again and again… that of tik and how it has destroyed the lives of thousands of people.

I know that much has been written about drug abuse. These are my personal recollections.

While lying in my hospital bed, numbed by three weeks of being administered morphine... in my tiny glass cubicle in ICU... I thought of a story I read in the Cape Times about a drug mule caught in Thailand with crystal meth.

I flashed back 12 years to when I was introduced to that deadly drug.

This is a reflection on that journey when I catalogued the ravages of tik use as a photo-journalist.

Recently President Jacob Zuma said on national television that criminal acts have become very violent.

Politicians preach about drugs and rehab and how bad drugs are, but I don’t think they have any idea how dangerous crystal meth is.

A lot of the dreadful violent crimes that have been committed in the past decade have been directly linked to crystal meth.

I have witnessed it first hand and with family and friends, where it tore apart those persons and all those around them.

Tik addicts don’t care about anyone but themselves, not even their own family. They will steal and lie to get what they want. Parents are often oblivious of the addiction at first and when they become aware of it, it is often too late. In the poorer communities rehab may work in a few cases but addicts are exposed to the drugs as soon as they return to their environment...

I read a book about a mother who killed her tik addicted son, and this I can believe. I have been documenting tik addicts since my personal experience and realise that if it is so bad in middle-class families, it must be devastating in poorer communities, where little or no help is available.

Crystal meth has been around for years but its availability and cheapness makes it the most sought after drug in the Western Cape, and addiction is growing at an alarming rate.

In townships like Khayelitsha, where a few years ago it was pretty scarce, tik use is now gaining momentum.

On many occasions I have been in rooms where I witnessed gang members smoke tik then smoke a dagga pipe mixed with mandrax, known on the street as a white pipe.

You can see an instant change in behaviour.

Many years ago, a gangster whom I knew very well, and trusted, jokingly put a gun to my head. I joked back saying: “There are probably no bullets in it.” He was offended by my comment and said: “Oh, Brents, moenie my vir 'n gat vat nie.” (don't take me for an idiot ).

Then, like a professional gunman, he pulled the clip out of the gun, and scattered the bullets onto the bed.

Since then I have never questioned whether a gun is loaded or not... and I have seen many.

A long-standing friend who lives in Lavender Hill and was moved there after being forcibly removed from District Six with his parents in the 1960s, one of apartheid’s dumping grounds, told me that one must not be too anxious when one sees a group of old men on a street corner.

Rather turn around and walk away when you see a group of youngsters, as they are far more dangerous – as they have lots to prove and, when on tik, they generally feel invincible.

One early afternoon, while talking to a friend in a notoriously gang-ridden area, we saw three youngsters, one riding a bicycle and two walking alongside him. The one on the bicycle was holding a gun on the handle bar while riding.

The other two, I assumed, had guns hidden in their pants. As they went past, they brazenly smiled at us and said: “Howzit, Whitey,” almost as if they were on their way to a soccer match.

A month later a young man was shot and killed by two youngsters on bicycles.

I have photographed people’s homes where everything – even the hand basin – had been ripped out and sold for drugs .

I have witnessed young girls smoking tik and then offering themselves to me for sex.

A 13-year-old once begged me to help her because she needed R30, which is the price of a packet of tik. This sickened me and I could not sleep for nights.

Two girls I’ve known since their early teens have become fuel for the tik fodder. One has a child, the other, three.

They are now only in their mid-20s but they look ravaged, beyond their years, because of tik abuse.

I have never smoked the drug personally, but I have been in rooms clouded with tik fumes and I have felt pretty lighthearted when driving home, which makes me realise how easy it is to become addicted, especially when coming from an insecure family environment.

Parliamentarians, wake up. This is a time bomb.