A single sip could end your life

KAMPALA - Drugs, drugs, drugs…. That sounds like a chorus of a popular song now. It is like a new sad national anthem — so common everyone knows it, yet it persists. 

The state minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Balaam Baruhagara, has raised the alarm. Celebrities like Judith Heard, Jackie Chandiru and Ffeffe Bussi have spoken out. 

There have been chilling confessions from former dealers like Shadrack Kuteesa, yet the situation continues to spiral out of control. It is a never-ending dangerous cycle — quit, recover, then relapse…and the cycle goes on. 

It swirls, in twirls, it breaks users into pieces, they pick up pieces and worst are buried in pieces. These illicit drugs come in different forms and colours. 

The worst are those that crack heads, whose users have been labelled as crackheads. However, in Kampala and other cities around the country, there is a growing use of date rape drugs. 

And that is creating a series of problems which the society is yet to figure out how to deal with. 

In January, popular female MC Andrea Jojo (not real name) was invited to a popular joint in Kololo by her close friend who had a celebrity night event. 

Being a popular MC, she was put on a table (of course flooded with expensive liquor) that had Congolese nationals and her friends. 

“I also realised that there was a group of about 15 young girls (escorts) whose duty was to provide company to men in the VIP section,” she narrates. 

At around 11:00pm, she was asked to join another MC on stage and start work. 

“I left my drink on the table, but a security guard was assigned to pass it over to me whenever I wanted a sip,” she says. Four sips in, she is short of breath and nausea peaks. She goes to her seat, and the next thing she remembers was being taken to a car in the park yard. 

“I threw up, but that did not stop the man, I did not know, but remember sharing a table with, from taking advantage of me,” she sobs. 

She was left sprawling in the car park, staggered to her car, and called her brother from Najjera to rescue her. After receiving medical treatment, the doctor advised her to obtain a Police reference letter and attempt to get security footage from the bar.
 
“I was too ashamed of what I had been subjected to and opted to instead keep quiet over the matter,” she says. For Naome, there was no tact, but guts. After taking her drink, she became unconscious. 

“They raped me and recorded a video of the crime. When I regained consciousness, the two men who had spiked my drink threatened to kill me and upload the video on social media if I told anyone about the matter,” she says. 

Thabitha, a 22-year-old university student, also recalls meeting a gentleman in one of the clubs in Ggaba. However, the man she met and trusted, later on drugged and raped her. 

“I met him in February this year and we exchanged contacts and stayed in touch. He came to campus and asked me to find him in his car for a catch-up. While in his car, he ordered for me fast food and we had a candid talk. This was about midday. But I gradually fell asleep after that lunch,” Thabitha recalls. She blacked out, woke up at 6:00pm and “felt weird down there. 

Some of the date-rape drugs cause amnesia and after the victim has been abused, it is hard to trace the criminals since they cannot remember anything.

I had been raped,” she says. She did not remember anything that happened in the last hours “but everything on my body showed that I had just had sex,” she says. 

She has never seen the man again and he has since switched off his phone. An investigation by the New Vision established that it is almost impossible for one to be too careful. 

The investigations revealed that ugly things are happening in different Kampala bars, where women’s drinks are being spiked. Men’s drinks are spiked too, to deadly repercussions. 

Women and men end up with wrong partners and regret for the rest of their lives. 

The investigation also revealed that there were a wide range of drugs that were easily available and the most common was the methamphetamine, known locally as “ice”, which is increasingly being used by the affluent population. 

The investigations further revealed that security agencies had focused their campaigns on low-income areas like Bwaise, Kamwokya, Kisenyi, all in the downtown areas, while the wealthy abuse the drug in high-end private establishments in places like Kololo, Bunga, Ntinda, Kabalagala, Bbunga and Munyonyo bars making detection difficult for authorities. 

In high-end bars, the consumption often takes place in the private parlours or washrooms. When you hear someone say, “time to refresh” as they walk towards the washrooms, it is a sign. 

We are powerless - Police  

Commissioner Tinka Zarugaba, the head of Police Anti-Narcotics Department, confirms there is an increment in drug and substance abuse, especially among young people. 

He revealed that most of the people had started with what was being grown locally like cannabis. “Most of such drugs may not make you addicted, but they are an inducement to the hard drugs,” he said. 

He confirmed that the hard drugs business is organised crime just like human trafficking. 

“The drugs are imported into the country. We are only trying to control them, but not in full control,” he admits. For Zarugaba, the country is yet to come to terms with the drug problem. 

“If we do not recognise it as a big problem, it will affect policy making and the equipping and funding of the narcotics department. People who are supposed to enable us do our work, have a perception that drugs are not a problem,” he added. 

“President Yoweri Museveni assented to the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act 2023 in February 2024, but the gazettement has not taken place. You should go to that person supposed to gazette it and ask why it has not been gazetted,” he stated.

Many people report having been raped after having Rohypnol slipped into their drinks.

Does that friendly face in the bar mean well? 

Back and forth 

When it rains, it pours. When you assume that one addict has been rescued, there is another human trying to get that person to relapse. No sooner has a druglord completed his sentence, than he is back on the circuit. 

Will there be an end to this? We need to try for the best, inspite of being terrified of the worst. 

Previous arrests 

In May 2017, Ismail Ongarambe Balinda, a Ugandan drug trafficker, was tracked by American security operatives, leading to his arrest in Kenya, with allegations indicating he had used the UN base in Entebbe as a cover. 

The investigations revealed that Balinda would transport his parcels containing drugs disguised as luggage for UN staff. The detectives seized reagents which were imported in the name of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) logistics base in Entebbe, but later traced it to Balinda. 

It would later emerge that by the time of Balinda’s arrest in Kenya, he had placed his order for the reagents from an Indian pharmaceutical company. 

Balinda was using the reagents to manufacture heroin and cocaine. Balinda’s arrest followed a US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation spanning three continents for many months. 

The DEA, which had been trailing Balinda’s Mexican accomplices, arrested them in 2017 in the US, before flying them to Nairobi, Kenya, to lure Balinda out of Uganda. 
Balinda had employed two Mexicans to build for him a drug laboratory at his home in Wakiso district, which the Police raided and carried away tonnes of chemicals and equipment intended to establish a drug processing plant.

According to Zarugaba, Balinda was charged and convicted in a New York court and jailed. “He served his sentence and he is back in the country. If you notice there was recognisable progress between 2017 and 2020. 

The narcotics department was trying, but then the question now should be why has there been reluctance to fight drug abuse in the country,” Zarugaba wondered. 

He also confirmed that their intelligence had shown that ‘Meth’ was now locally being manufactured here. 

“When convicts are released, they may open up new bases or factories. We are not resourced and we cannot do much and everything has gone back to where we were,” he added. 

Sources who spoke to New Vision confirmed the presence of about four illegal laboratories that were manufacturing meth within Kampala. A local supplier confirmed he picked his supplies from a Nigerian national in Kabalagala. 

“I cannot divulge my sources, but what I know they are powerful and well protected,” the source noted. 

Zarugaba warned that methamphetamine (meth) use contributes to HIV and hepatitis transmission, as users engage in risky sexual behaviour and share injection equipment. Meth, a highly addictive synthetic stimulant, causes euphoria and leads to paranoia, heart complications and even death.

Drugs in schools 

The New Vision investigation also confirmed that some of these drugs, like methamphetamine, had also found their way in different schools in and around Kampala, especially the affluent international schools. 

David Bill, a local supplier in Kololo, confirmed they had since expanded their supplies to schools. 

“Some of these students get addicted in the long run when they take it in bars during their holidays. When they go back to school, we maintain supply as long as they can send in the money,” he adds. 

Some of these drugs are disguised as sugar, cookies, or cakes. To curb the habit, some schools have employed sniffer dogs. 

Expert speaks out 

New Vision has also learnt that the several other drugs available on the local market include stilnox, amitriptyline, rohypnol, vailum and ketamine, which can all be used as rape drugs. 

Some of these were being sold openly at the pharmacies in Kampala. Other common drugs, not often used as rape drugs on the market, include cocaine (chalk, coda), codeine, ketamine (Ket, Special K), heroin and Benzodiazepines (Benzos) A health expert who spoke to the New Vision noted that Rohypnol is sold in some countries as a sleeping pill, and can cause extreme drowsiness (or “blackouts”), it is often used in date rapes. 

Many people report having been raped after having Rohypnol slipped into their drinks. The drug also causes “anterograde amnesia.” 

This means it is hard to remember what happened while on the drug. Because of this, it can be hard to give important details if someone wants to report the rape. 

It, however, has its own dangers and can cause a drop in blood pressure, as well as cause memory loss, drowsiness, dizziness, and an upset stomach. 

Though it is part of the depressant family of drugs, it causes some people to be overly excited or aggressive.