http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat
Posted on 04/18/2010 12:30:19 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Interesting. Knew nothing about this qat problem in Yemen, or even what qat is. Thanks for the article. Now I know.
qat chewing dangerous? in what culture might that be?
qat chewing is indigenous to Yemeni culture- you’d chew qat if you lived in Yemen,too, i bet you would.
It ain’t too bright to stop growing food and deplete aquifers in a desert, just to grow dope.
Pretty darn stupid. But I guess chewing dope makes people stupid.
Isn’t there a similar problem in small Asian villages also? I don’t know if it is the same substance but it is similar. The men chew it. The women leave the villages to go to the cities and work or get into prostitution and the men stay behind and become addicts to the stuff.
Qat is big in Somalia, too. Seems to be quite the legal drug for Mohammadans. Courage for terrorists.
yitbos
It’s very popular in Djibouti; it’s imported daily and around 2 PM all activities stop so people can enjoy it.
According to the locals there is nothing better than having a mouthful of qat (or Khat)and drinking coca cola.
Yemen Bump
That wouldn't match a weeks worth of drugs entering the U.S.
Let them have their qat.
Keeps more of them over there doing nothing.
When they get ambitious nothing good comes of it.
If Bin Laden had stayed in Yemen chewing qat, the world would be a better place.
Let them eat qat.
The article points out that qat chewing was originally reserved to the elites, such as the descendants of Mohammed, but since the 1970s has expanded to the point that even people who earn $900 a year are spending 10-30% of their income on it, to the point of not even feeding their families. So I’d say it’s pretty dangerous to the Yemenis themselves now.
Becoming a state that lives mainly on drug production is never healthy. Whether it’s poppy production in Afghanistan or coca growing in Bolivia, it is never economically or socially healthy for a state to move its agricultural production from food to drugs. Another thing this does, of course, is give the drug producers an incentive to get more and more people to use the drug. You end up with an entire society that believes in staying stoned, and where it is considered perfectly fine to spend six hours chewing qat with your buddies while your family goes hungry because you aren’t working.
So I’d say that it’s pretty dangerous.
a mouthful of qat and a cold beer?
The solution to the Koran allowed qat problem is Koran disallowed beer or Jack Daniels
You may be thinking of paan, made from groundbetel nuts, and used as a mild digestive which is relatively harmless, and is chewed by many people in South and Southeast Asia after meals. EVERYONE chews it, and it forces no one into either a life of indolence or into prostitution.
sounds like we should produce a stable form (genetically modified version that doesn’t break down)so it can be imported. Flood the market with cheap qat throughout the middle east, then trade for oil and control their radicals through import controls. Isn’t that how the british did it with tea and opium?
I wouldn’t
but that’s just me.
Yeah, betel nut...I remember it from ‘Nam...some old Mamasan looking at you and flashing an ever-present smile at you with BLACK teeth from the drug, aka the “betel nut grin”. Ugh.
Some guy got caught with a suitcase full of that stuff here in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. I suspect there is some local demand from all the Somoli cab drivers here.
yeah, but that’s Yemen isn’t it?
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