South Africa's illegal drug market is worth R61 billion - study
The study by the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs reveals there are some 400 000 heroin users in South Africa, and 350 000 users of cocaine.
A man administers drugs to a fellow addict in the streets of Mpumalanga. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
Lester Kiewit is joined by Shaun Shelly, a researcher at the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs. They speak about a groundbreaking study which quantifies the country’s massive drug economy, with data gathered from drug users themselves.
Listen below.
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Considering its devastating impact on lives and communities, news as to the sheer size of the South African illegal drug market may not come as a shock.
But researchers who carried out a new study on the country's drug economy say the findings make for a sobering read.
They says the study adds to the understanding of the drug economy by quantifying the market volumes and values for cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine (tik).
Shelley says the study is the first of its kind, because it looked at the drug market from a different perspective: those who use drugs.
"Typically, what you'd do is look at police seizures, or you'd look at information from police action... Here we're looking from the other end, we're looking from the consumer point of view."
- Shaun Shelly, Researcher - South African Network of People Who Use Drugs
Shelley says the findings revealed a surprisingly large drug market in South Africa.
"And this is most probably an underestimate, (although the margins for error are quite large), we didn't capture certain populations, for example, more affluent populations, we didn't put that in because we had no way of measuring that at this stage."
- Shaun Shelly, Researcher - South African Network of People Who Use Drugs
Shelley admits the study was somewhat disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning the sample was not as large as researchers had hoped.
And despite the price of certain street drugs like heroin plummeting in recent years, it revealed that the combined value of South Africa's drug economy was calculated at US$3.5 billion (about R61 billion).
"I think at least we're getting an image now of what this market entails, and 3.5 billion dollars is a lot of money."
- Shaun Shelly, Researcher - South African Network of People Who Use Drugs
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.