Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
nyaopelatest news & developments
Dark horse: Winner of this year’s FNB Art Prize Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s ‘Ezilalini (The Country)’
ART

Snapping the underbelly

Lensman goes where others fear to tread to document the reality of life in the townships

  • Lesego Chepape
3 min read
This week the Global State of Harm Reduction report by Harm Reduction International cited South Africa as having become one of the world’s largest methamphetamine markets. (Photo by Thomas Banneyer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
CRYSTAL METH

Drug abuse ‘out of hand’ in South Africa, needs radical policy shift

The World Health Organisation recommended opioid substitution drug treatment but because of the cost this therapy is not offered in the public health service

  • Chris Bateman
8 min read
11 June 2014: A nyaope user places the addictive white substance into a mixture of weed and tabacco. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee
DRUGS

When you kiss nyaope, you marry it

The low-grade form of heroin continues to strip the youth of their future and the young women living in a drug house in Ekurhuleni say the police do not take them seriously

  • Nation Nyoka
13 min read
Many people lack reliable electricity, clean water and adequate housing. When the state fails to provide these services, rights such as dignity, equality and access to healthcare are undermined. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ALEXANDRA

Plasma gangs: How South Africans’ fears about crime created an urban legend

A tale of criminality, magic, violence and fear offered a way to foreground the contradictions that come with living in a township

  • Nicky Falkof
5 min read
Street life: Racing with a shopping trolley provides an all-too-rare moment of fun for the at-risk children of Mahikeng. Photos: Delwyn Verasamy
BOIKAGONG CHILD AND YOUTH CARE CENTRE

State fails at-risk children as R55m orphanage stands empty

Boikagong Centre in Mahikeng has been closed for almost two years because it did not meet safety requirements. The discarded children say they want a safe place to learn, but…

  • Khaya Koko
11 min read
Nyaope— a cocktail of heroin
DRUGS

Flakka in SA is fake news – Hawks

The unit says it has found no signs of the psychosis-inducing drug but others insist it is in the country

  • Govan Whittles
6 min read
Shell shock: Since 18 Norman Street was attacked and burnt by infuriated Rosettenville residents
BROTHELS

Rosettenville: Home is where your heart breaks

Neighbours turn away, authorities wash their hands — the story of this house is of neglect, despair and nyaope

  • Govan Whittles
  • Peter Rothpletz
9 min read
Tshwane offers heroin users treatment to beat heroin cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
DRUGS

New Gauteng programme allows drug users to swap illegal highs for safer alternatives

The Tshwane initiative could help reduce drug use, drug-related crime and new HIV infections.

  • Nelisiwe Msomi
3 min read
Injecting drug users are at high risk of contracting Hepatitis C from sharing needles. (Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters)
HEROIN

Inside ‘bluetoothing’s’ fake high

Did you know that ‘bluetoothing’ puts you at risk of contracting multiple bloodborne diseases and it doesn’t even get you high?

  • Nelisiwe Msomi
  • Dylan Bush
1 min read
Many solutions have been proposed around the world, and one of them is to treat drug abuse as a crime but as a health crisis.
DRUG ADDICTION

‘Bluetoothing’: The drug myth that fooled a nation?

Outreach workers say the practice making headlines isn’t as widespread as it’s been made out to be as they rush to prevent more from trying it.

  • Nelisiwe Msomi
4 min read
Pictures of drug users injecting themselves with the blood of others have gone viral in SA.
DYLAN BUSH

‘Bluetoothing’: Is this drug fad really happening in South Africa?

Pictures of drug users injecting themselves with the blood of others have gone viral in SA.

  • Dylan Bush
1 min read
DRUG ADDICTION

Nyaope addiction tests a community’s spirit

Addicts try and try again to break the habit but, with no real prospects, they can’t win the battle.

  • Mosibudi Ratlebjane
5 min read
In Snake Park
NYAOPE

Burying the promise of all our nephews

A youngster who is good with his hands and has a brain to match – but his future doesn’t look good.

  • Staff Reporter
2 min read
‘Rocky’
ADRIAN EPHRAIM

Nyaope’s deadly, and addictive, mix

The highly addictive mix of heroin and cannabis is the drug of choice for the economic outcasts.

  • Adrian Ephraim
9 min read
Tools of the trade: Evidence of Sam Maseko’s addiction. His mother Audrey at least knows where Sam is now; he used to wander around and steal.
DRUG ABUSE

We need to talk about caving in to nyaope

Ivory Park’s Operation Thiba Nyaope provides support for addicts and their affected families.

  • Ina Skosana
16 min read
NYAOPE

Hacking murders: Drugs or Satanism?

Brutal hackings across SA have raised the spectre of Satanism and drug use in terrified communities. But the reality is more complex than that.

  • Khuthala Nandipha
4 min read
DRUG ABUSE

Drug ‘nyaope’ to be made illegal in South Africa

The drug nyaope is in the processes of being classified as an illegal drug making it possible for people in possesion to be prosecuted.

  • Sapa
2 min read