Bombe, African "drug" made from catalytic converters...

[Tony6Strings]

Craze for drug made from catalytic converters alarms Congo's capital - Autoblog

KINSHASA, Congo — A new craze for a drug derived from crushed vehicle exhaust filters is rattling authorities in Kinshasa, triggering a campaign to

www.google.com

This reminds me of nyaope, or whoonga, the trend in Africa of heroin mixed with other things, HIV medicine and what have you. There was a Hamilton's Pharm episode about it.

Now there's this. Catalytic converters. Here in USA they are commonly stolen by addicts for precious metal salvage in order to fund habits. Elsewhere they are powdered and put directly into the drugs??!!

Hoax? Ignorance? Is there something in there actually effecting these people in a real pharmacalogical way?

 

[metta-morpheus]

Catalytic converters? Man, whatever happened to good ol jenkem?

 

[downwardsfromzero]

De-googled link here: Craze for drug made from catalytic converters alarms Congo's capital

I can imagine the catalytic properties being useful in a whole range of chemical procedures, including but not limited to the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, illicit or otherwise. Gotta admire their creativity!

Also, it's easy to imagine today's journalists being too lazy and uninformed to grasp the above point. The report may or may not be accurate, although it does seem possible that some third-hand knowledge of chemistry has been somewhat misinterpreted in the pursuit of some means of escaping the horrors of grinding poverty.

Users mix the crushed honeycomb with vitamin pills and typically add sleeping tablets, sedatives or smoke it with tobacco, but nothing is known about how it works, or its long-term effects, said Dandy Yela Y'Olemba, country director of the World Federation against Drugs.

Nothing is know about how it works? The fact that they're snorting sleeping pills (as contrasted with sedatives, hmmm - not that big of a difference) should give at least some indication of how it works. You would think that someone working for "the World Federation against Drugs" might be able to work this out, or is even knowing anything about druurgz a perilous, slippery slope to the infernal abyss?

World Federation Against Drugs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Just to be clear, I do support the work of people offering help to those who find themselves in such a messed up situation. I'm just not a fan of lazy journalism.

Kinshasa-DRC: Sober Youth Project - Partner Interactions concludes psychotherapeutic support through a recreational activity with the youth – former kulunas - World Federation Against Drugs

Better late than never as we say. In Kinshasa, ex-kulunas, former users of the drug “Bombé”, have benefited from mental and psychosocial support for a change of life thanks to...

wfad.se

“This project has enabled us to understand that poverty is the main reason for the ‘Kuluna phenomenon’, alongside other more personal reasons. Many of the young people resort to this life because they feel discriminated and rejected by society. They are normal people who need love,”

Seems to be a good take-home point from all of this.