Leaf of paradise?: the intricate effects of khat in Madagascar

Abstract

Purpose

–Khat is a bushy plant whose leaves are chewed for a mild amphetamine effect. The purpose of this paper is to investigate khat's multiple effects, broadly defined to include impacts on producers, traders, and consumers, as well as on the biophysical environment, in northern Madagascar.

Design/methodology/approach

This primarily ethnographic study (conducted from 2004 to 2010), includes observation, semi-structured interviews, and orally administered questionnaires.

Findings

Khat's effects include strain on the household budgets of consumers, but increased earnings to producers and traders. In addition, there is some evidence of consumers’ strained primary social relationships, yet khat chewing is also positively linked with new forms of urban multiethnic identity.

Research limitations/implications

To evaluate a drug's overall effects, it is critical to understand it within wide-ranging political, economic, biological, and cultural contexts. Many studies of drugs focus on only one component. While this makes for more manageable research designs, it obscures the complex interplay of numerous factors. This impedes general understanding and furthermore makes it difficult to design broadly effective, multisector intervention strategies.

Originality/value

This analysis reveals the intricacy of khat's effects in Madagascar while programmatically proposing a model for doing research with policy implications on other psychotropic substances.

Citation

L. Gezon, L. (2013), "Leaf of paradise?: the intricate effects of khat in Madagascar", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 194-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-12-2012-0012