KINSHASA, Sep. 27 (Reuters) – Renewed excitement for a drug extracted from crushed vehicle exhaust filters is rocking Kinshasa authorities and sparking a campaign to eradicate the brew and a related auto parts theft rash.
In August, following a call from the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, police rounded up and brought up nearly 100 suspected dealers and users of the drug bomb, which means powerful in the local Lingala language.
“This social phenomenon requires a collective responsibility from the whole nation,” Tshisekedi told ministers at a weekly meeting.
In an abandoned hut in the suburbs of Kinshasa, a young man in search of oblivion slits open a bag of brown powder, mixes it with a few crushed pills with the back of a spoon, before snorting the “bomb” mixture with his friends.
Within minutes, the trio slowly swayed and scratched themselves in a catatonic state that experts in the Congo say users can stand motionless for hours or sleep for days.
“We used to drink very strong whiskey … we were restless and hurt people,” said Cedrick, a 26-year-old gang leader in a white designer shirt.
“But with the bomb it calms you down, you get tired, you stay standing or sitting somewhere for a very long time. When you’re done, you go home without bothering anyone.”
In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on August 31, 2021, a man demonstrates a substance called a “bomb,” a mixture of crushed honeycomb and pills from catalytic converters, before snorting at it. Picture from August 31, 2021. REUTERS / Benoit Nyemba
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Car owners, police and drug experts are not that optimistic.
The brown powder is obtained by crushing the ceramic honeycomb core of automotive catalytic converters, the device that reduces the emission of toxic gases in vehicle exhaust pipes.
Mechanics are blaming the rising demand for the drug on a spate of thefts of catalytic converters coated with metals such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium.
Kinshasa-based mechanic Tresore Kadogo says he sees between five and ten customers every day with the same problem.
“We check under the car and the catalytic converter is already gone, it was cut off,” said Kadogo. “This drug bomb is damaging our customers, especially recently.”
Users mix the crushed honeycomb with vitamin pills and usually add sleeping pills, sedatives or smoke it with tobacco for drugs.
The metals in catalysts can cause cancer, Yela warned. “It’s not a substance that we can consume,” said Yela. “Are we engines or are we humans?”
Reporting by Benoit Nyemba; Additional reporting and writing from Hereward Holland; Adaptation by Bate Felix, William Maclean
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