Posted on 09/29/2007 9:38:11 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA -- Police are sounding an alert, warning residents against a new drug that has hit the streets of Philadelphia.
The drug, known as khat, was seized by Philadelphia Police Officers Wednesday.
CBS 3 has learned 740 lbs. of khat was recovered at a home in East Falls after being shipped to Philadelphia from East Africa in containers.
Sources said the seizure is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
"We definitely want to make sure that the public is made aware of this new drug to our area," said Philadelphia Police Inspector Aaron Horne.
The leafy drug is a natural drug that comes from the Celastrus edulis plant and is commonly used East Africa and Europe where it is legal. Police said when smoked, chewed, used in tea, or food, the plant gives a mild hallucinogenic high similar to cocaine and marijuana.
Police said in some countries using khat is a tradition in some cultures.
Investigators are concerned about the cheapness of khat and its availability online, and because it is a new drug, fear it could become popular among young people.
"What we want to do is get the information out to the public, specifically unsuspecting parents," said Insp. Horne.
Police said one deterrent is the drug's lack of a shelf-life. Once cut from the stalk, it loses potency within two days.
Police said an arrest in this case is expected within the next few days.
Don’t know how khat got into the states, because I swear the War on Drugs is working.
Police said one deterrent is the drug’s lack of a shelf-life. Once cut from the stalk, it loses potency within two days.
So they Fed Ex it from Africa?
If it is so new to the US then how did it get on the illegal substance list so fast?
We have drugs in pharmacies that the FDA can’t get around to getting off the shelf but?
I’ve never tried it but from what I hear it is on the level of chewing Jimson Weed pods whose ingredients are the belladonna alkaloids atropine and scopolamine. I don’t believe this stuff will ever have much of a market.
how did it get on the illegal substance list so fast?
Great, great ?
I took a pharmicutical prescribed by a doctor many decades ago for stomach problems. Hyper acid flow.
I imagine khat has been in the U.S. for years but it just went unrecognized because customs, the DEA and the police didn’t know what it was. I knew a Lebanese-American who told me when he was a child in the 1950’s, living in New England, his grandfather would smoke hashish in a water pipe a few times a week the way other grandfathers smoked tobacco. I asked him where his grandfather got the drug and he said relatives in Lebanon would mail it to the house. He said nobody paid any attention to it in those days or gave any thought to it being illegal.
For a few days it is a hallucinogenic. After that it acts like a mild form of amphetamine.
From Wikipedia:
The stimulant effect of the plant was originally attributed to “katin”, cathine, a phenethylamine-type substance isolated from the plant. However, the attribution was disputed by reports showing the plant extracts from fresh leaves contained another substance more behaviorally active than cathine. In 1975, the related alkaloid cathinone was isolated, and its absolute configuration was established in 1978. Cathinone is not very stable and breaks down to produce cathine and norephedrine. These chemicals belong to the PPA (phenylpropanolamine) family, a subset of the phenethylamines related to amphetamines and the catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine.[11]
Both of khat’s major active ingredients -cathine and cathinone- are phenylalklamines, meaning they are in the same class of chemicals as amphetamines. In fact, cathinone and cathine have a very similar molecular structure to amphetamine.[12]
When khat leaves dry, the more potent chemical, cathinone, evaporates within 48 hours leaving behind the milder Schedule IV chemical, cathine. Thus, harvesters transport khat by packaging the leaves and stems in plastic bags or wrapping them in banana leaves to preserve their moisture and keep the cathinone potent. It is also common for them to frequently sprinkle the plant with water or use refrigeration during transportation.
When the khat leaves are chewed, cathine and cathinone are released and absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth and the lining of the stomach. The action of cathine and cathinone on the reuptake of epinephrine and norepinephrine has been demonstrated in lab animals, showing that one or both of these chemicals cause the body to recycle these neurotransmitters more slowly, resulting in the wakefulness and insomnia associated with khat use.[13]
Receptors for serotonin show a high affinity for cathinone suggesting that this chemical is responsible for feelings of euphoria associated with chewing khat. In mice, cathinone produces the same types of nervous pacing or repetitive scratching behaviors associated with amphetamines.[14] The effects of cathinone peak after 15 to 30 minutes with nearly 98% of the substance metabolized into norephedrine by the liver.[15]
Cathine is somewhat less understood, being believed to act upon the adrenergenic receptors causing the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine.[16] It has a half-life of about 3 hours in humans.
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