Crack, sex work, and HIV
Leggett, T.
Aids Analysis Africa 9(6): 3
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 1016-8974 PMID: 12349152 Document Number: 282650
South Africa's long isolation, and perhaps deliberate efforts by the apartheid government, have led to an unusual pattern of drug abuse in the country. Drugs not commonly used in other countries, such as Mandrax and Welconol, are widespread in South Africa, while the street drugs commonly found in other countries, such as cocaine and heroin, have been relatively rare. However, this is changing, as international drug traffickers now import a broad range of drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Demand for these drugs has been established in South Africa, including among the urban lower classes. Immigration, especially of other Africans and particularly Nigerians, has accelerated the trend. While both mandrax and crack cocaine are smoked, the former is a sedative and the latter is a stimulant with pro-sexual effects. These sexual effects, together with very strong addictive potential, have led to very high HIV seroprevalence in user populations. Addiction often leads female users into prostitution, with prostitutes being a prime conduit for the spread of both the drug and HIV infection. Desperate to earn funds to meet their crack consumption needs, drug-addicted female prostitutes in South Africa service many clients and engage in practices shunned by their nonaddicted peers, such as unprotected and anal sex. There will be serious long-term effects of crack cocaine consumption, together with prostitution, upon all of South African society.