Dealers in and users of the drug cocktail nyaope will face up to 25 years in jail with the amendment of the Drugs and Trafficking Act.
Until Friday last week, possession and use of the highly addictive mixture of heroin and dagga was not against the law because nyaope had not been classified as an illegal substance.
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said nyaope's ingredients - dagga and the narcotic heroin - were listed as "undesirable dependence-producing substances" in schedule two of the act.
He said that though dagga and heroin were the main ingredients of nyaope, antiretroviral medications, rat poison and sugar were added to make it more potent in producing an hypnotic effect.
"The amendment now prohibits the use and dealing in what we refer to as 'designer drugs'," Mhaga said.
There have been widespread calls for nyaope to be classified as an illegal drug since its emergence in early 2000,
The concoction is usually smoked and is especially popular among township youths.
Those found guilty of using or of being in possession of nyaope face a maximum of 15 years in prison, or a fine as determined by the court, or both.
Dealing in nyaope could earn a pusher a 25-year term, a fine, or both.
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