SUNDAY July 15, at 18:30 on SABC
2:
“Tik Monster”
Methamphetamine - also known as crystal meth or the “poor man’s cocaine”… In the Western Cape it’s known as Tik and it’s leaving a trail of destroyed lives as it swallows more and more addicts in the Cape Flats and beyond.
Tik is a powerfully addictive stimulant that affects many areas of the central nervous system. The white, odourless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder readily dissolves in water or alcohol. It’s relatively easily concocted from over-the-counter ingredients and sells for between R20 and R30 per “straw”.
It can be smoked, snorted, orally ingested or injected intravenously. In South Africa it is typically smoked by placing the powder/crystal in a light bulb, from which the metal threading has been removed. A lighter is used to heat the bulb and the fumes are smoked.
Addicts are from all walks of life but Tik weaves a common thread through their lives: a sense of loss and bitter regret. In Mitchell’s Plain 19-year old Stephan Ehrenreich struggles to perform everyday tasks. He says Tik has taken over his life and he can hardly make sensible decisions.
In Atlantis 21-year old Megan van Rooyen recounts the lies she told her parents while she attended Tik parties at friends’ homes. At one of these parties they once smoked about 15-thousand Rands worth of drugs, a small fortune considering the poverty and unemployment in Atlantis.
Parents of addicted children say they feel helpless against the onslaught of the drug. Limited rehabilitation facilities in the Western Cape make it even more difficult to deal with the problem.
And now Tik is spreading to once quaint towns such as Moreesburg where a former drug dealer boasts about his 100-percent profit margin … he’s since fallen in his own trap and has become as addicted as the people he once sold Tik to.
Join Fokus this Sunday 15 July at 18:30 as producer John Bailey, cameraman Shamiel Albertyn, uncover the story of one of the most powerful drugs ever to hit South Africa, only on SABC 2.
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