The Times Editorial:A new street drug that contains stolen anti-retrovirals mixed with dagga and various chemicals to form a highly addictive concoction is threatening to unravel the good work done by the Jacob Zuma administration in making potentially life-saving Aids drugs available to hundreds of thousands of people.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that so strong is the demand for the drug, known as ''whoonga'', that criminal syndicates in four provinces are burgling Aids clinics, mugging patients on ARV medication and attempting to hijack distribution vehicles.
According to the report, some of the government's 4000 treatment sites, which dispense ARVs to about 700000 patients countrywide, are also being targeted for the Aids drug Stocrin.
Thousands of addicts pay between R15 and R35 for a dose of whoonga, which is often also laced with a chemical used in rat poison.
Drug counsellors said a typical addict can go through the equivalent of seven Stocrin tablets a day.
As we report elsewhere in this newspaper, whoonga is extremely addictive - one user who spoke to The Times said it took only two "pulls" to turn him into an addict.
The police insist that they are "on top" of the situation but the combination of an extremely addictive street drug and the availability of a seemingly unlimited supply of one of its key ingredients represents a major threat to the government's ARV programme.
Drastic steps are required to safeguard ARV stockpiles at clinics and depots, and on distribution trucks. And the police, in conjunction with healthcare officials, must devise ways of protecting Aids patients from muggers.
Prosecutors must throw the book at the heartless criminals who target our most vulnerable citizens for a quick buck.
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