“I started using nyaope unintentionally in 2012. My husband smokes, but he is not honest with me. He would roll the joint, but before closing it, he opened the plastic bag, and put the powder on the joint.
“After three or four months, his mother found out that he was smoking nyaope.
“But by then, I was hooked.
“Every morning I wake up with flu symptoms, which will disappear after smoking.
“I have three children at home.
“When I need a fix, there are weeks where I don’t see or think about him.
“One day my parents took me to a place in Tembisa. There are places where people open rehab [detoxification] center in his yard. They take recovering addicts like me and put us in the back room.
“I am very sick. My nose was blocked, I threw up yellow stuff and it didn’t give me anything [to eat].
“He just told me: ‘Let’s pray you’ll be okay.’
“On the third day, around nine o’clock at night, I decided I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I jumped over the wall and never came back.
“Later, when I was high again, I thought about the future of my children with a mother who is out on the street, using drugs. Why can’t my love for them stop?
“I asked my mother to take me to the doctor, and I got a prescription for methadone.
“It’s 2017. I haven’t smoked for six years.
“Methadone helps with cravings – so much of it stops them. I don’t remember anything about smoking, I don’t like smoking, I don’t want to, I don’t like it, it doesn’t work for me.
– Violet Maodi is a public health worker with South African Drug Abuse Network in Tshwane, Gauteng. He spoke to Bhekisisa’s health reporter, Zano Kunene, about his recovery from drug addiction with the help of methadone. The drug mimics the effects of opiates such as nyaope, without getting people high. Provided to users as part of Opioid substitution therapy (OST) to help reduce withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting and dehydration, which can be life-threatening if people do not seek help. OST is a proven way to cut HIV and hepatitis C infection among people who inject drugs, partly because they can’t share a needle for a fix. That is why this is part of South Africa’s HIV action plan. A concept from the country’s latest strategy on HIV details plans to roll out methadone to all government health facilities by 2028. Currently, the health department only buys this drug for hospital.
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The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official policy or position Mail & Guardians.