Saturday, February 19, 2011

Let them chew khat?

For the past three weeks, protests have rocked this impoverished Middle Eastern capital. Some were massive; others were tiny. But one thing has remained constant: They all ended before 2 p.m. That's when most Yemenis enter khat-chewing sessions in their homes or cars, or practically anywhere.

"In Yemen, chewing khat is like drinking water," said Samir al-Sami, an aid worker observing the demonstration. "We can't live without it."
Read it all.

Khat pervades the culture. The family that chews together.

Traveling the roads of Yemen is quite an experience before 2pm. After 2pm they turn it up a notch.

Labels:

4 Comments:

Blogger Maysaloon said...

A very amusing title :-)

11:56 PM  
Blogger MC said...

I think that there's nothing wrong with Khat. I have tried it myself and think its totally benign. I live in Israel and work as a doctor here, and an relatively well informed about the abuse of this drug -- if that's what you can even call it. It's legal in Israel, and in Yemen, I don't think a drug that has a high weaker than coffee should be illegal.

-mc
check out my article on it:
http://streetmd.blogspot.com/2011/03/case-of-month-yemen-equivalent-of.html

12:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

W"Khat is illegal in the U.S", but Alcohol and Tobacco(Nicotine) the two most dangerous drugs known to humans are legal in the U.S, not to mention very dangerous stimulants such as Salvia and Ma huang, and peyote cactus that contain very dangerous substance called mescaline. Khat is way much safer than Coffee that Americans and other western nation line up for their morning fix. Khat should be regulated and not banned !

4:34 AM  
Anonymous Lois said...

Goodness, there's really much effective info here!

11:37 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home