AFRICANS BLAME DRUGS ON WEST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000600130001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 3, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 18, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

T *? rte. ~6 4}~I.
Approved For Release 2000/6MP'4[3P -01601 R000
18 FEU 1972
By Jini 'Hoagland
Washington Post Foreign Seryic?
NAIROBI, Feb. 17,--De-
praved Western youths are
corrupting Africans by in-
troducing them to mari-
Juana and hashish, In some
places, the CIA. may be at-
tempting- to embarrass left-
wing African officials by
planting large quantities of
drugs on them.
That, at least, is the picture
some African politicians,
clergymen and citizens are
trying to draw as-the drug
issue begins to become it
fashionable subject in parts
of Africa, which usually lags
a< few years In following
Western trehds.
Here in Kenya, Vice Presi-
dent Daniel Arap Moi
lashed out a few weeks ago
against "some itinerant tour-
ists, commonly known as
hippies;" who "encouraged
and stimulated" Kenyan
youths to smoke marijuana,
,which. is known locally as
bhang.
,Blot, who has also gath-
er'ed publicity in the local
media recently by condemn.
ing such signs of "Western
decadence" as miniskirts,
suggested that volunteer
teachers like those sent to
Kenya by the Peace Corps
have also helped spread the
smoking of marijuana here.
His remarks have sparked
a lively debate. African
women's groups and Presby-
terian ministers have rushed
to agree with 111oi and to
issue warnings that drug
to>:,` zg__ would destroy the
co,intry unless something
was done about the foreign-
ers.
A few voices of dissent
have been raised, pointing
out that many groups in Af-
rica have had ?a long and
somewhat honorable tradi-
tion of smoking cannabis
plants, which have grown
wild across the continent for
decades if not centuries.
I went the other day to
my bank in Nycri, II. C.
Allen wrote the other day to
the Daily Nation newspaper,
"and standing dramatically
in the middle of the floor,
was a man of middle age
smoking quite the most
enormous reefer I am ever
likely to see. The smoke
filled the bank," Allen
added, but people "seemed
more amused than con-
cerned."
The Nation, Nairobi's big-
gest English language paper,
also recently carried an
item about a 69-year-old man
who told a judge he had
started smoking bhang when
he was a boy. He was jailed
for six months for selling
marijuana to his friends.
And this week in Uganda,
a group of Baganda tribes-
men asked President Idi
Amin to allow them to start
growing bhang again. It was
outlawed only when the
English colonial settlers
came to Uganda, they re-
minded Amin.
They claimed that the
drug helped heal pneumonia
and whooping cough, helped
people regain appetite and
is in .any case "one of the
strongest and finest types of
tobacco." Amin changed the
subject to economic develop-
ment.
Uganda's northern neigh-
bor, the Sudan, is another
country where the smoking
of hashish is not unknown.
But last month, when a high
ranking Sudanese general'
and government official,
,Alai. Gen. Ahmed Abdel
Iialim was arrested in Bei-.
rut with $50,000 worth of
hashish in his luggage, Su.
danese President Jaafar Ni-
ing, Nimeri also announced
that Halim had asked to be
allowed to resign "to foil
chances of imperialism" to
embarrass the self-styled
revolutionary government of
the Sudan.
Thus far, few African
countries have instituted the
kind of Draconian penalties
Middle East countries are
using to discourage foreign-
ers from using drugs. But
magistrates here are begin-
ning to warn of stiffer pen-
alties as the local media
begin to take an interest in
drug news:
One exception to the low-
key approach is Malawi,
where an Australian youth
was recently sentenced to
five years in jail for posses-
sion of hashish.
South Africa is the only
country with an intensive.
antidrug campaign on the
continent. The police there
use many American-devel??
oped techniques such as
sending helicopters out to
look for fields of marijuana,
meri immediately labeled 'training police dogs to sniff
the arrest as a frameup ar- it out, and routinely employ-
ranged by "imperialist cir- ', ing stiff penalties.. The gov-
cles."- ernment is known to have
The general was returning seriously considered for
to Khartoum from an offi- some time imposing the
cial visit to China. While as- death penalty for those cog
sailing the "obvious" plant- victed of selling drugs.
Approved For-Release 2000/05/1 5: CIA-RDP80-01601 R000600130001-4