We Have 1,350 Patients of Addiction Every Day – Professor Ali Baldo stated on Addiction in Sudan – Part 2

Alaa Babiker

We interviewed Professor Ali Baldo last week and he told us very interesting information’s regarding addiction in Sudan. You can read Part-1 of the interview HERE. And now you can continue reading the interview in part-2.

Q8: What is the approximate number of hospitals and psychological treatment centers in Sudan? Are there any psychological treatment centers in the states? And what is the approximate number of them?

A8: In Sudan there are 2 major and principal Psychiatric hospitals; the first one is Al-Tigani Al-Mahi Teaching Psychiatric Hospital located in North of Omdurman. It was stablished in 1971, and was named after the Late Professor Al-Tigani Al-Mahi, the first Psychiatrist in Africa.

The second one is Taha Ba’ashar Teaching Psychiatric Hospital, located in Khartoum North. It was established in 1973, after the promotion and the upgrading of Bahri clinic, which was established in 1962.

There are some divisions of psychiatric and neuropsychiatric practices in the medical corps in Omdurman, police forces, medical services in Buri, and some departments in North Kurdufan, Kassala, Jazeera State, Port-Sudan, and Merowe.

There are also some private psychiatric hospitals in Khartoum and Madani, but they are so small to accommodate large number of psychiatric patients and addict patients.

Q9: When did drugs enter Sudan? What are the differences between the drug Ice and the most widely circulated Bango?

A9: Cannabis; which is known as Bango, Hasheesh, Cannabis Indica, or Cannabis Sativa, or other subtitles and subgroups of it. In Sudan, it is well known for centuries, and is widely used as drug among Sudanese till 80s and early 1990s, after which Ice or Meth Crystal also Known as The Devil, Shabbo, or Snow, was introduced in Sudan via borders from the Gulf and West Africa. It is harmful, highly addictive, and dangerous with lethal and fatal consequences among addicts. It can lead to suicide, homicide, destruction, rape, and also pyromania with some sort of conflict with law.

Cannabis is less toxic with no physical dependence, and it could be left without any somatic manifestations. It could also be control by many laws, nowadays Cannabis is used as medical Marijuana for certain medial conditions.

In this manner, nowadays Sudan is accommodating many drugs, like Ice, beside the well-known traditional drugs such as ShaaSh Mandi, Hasheesh, Bango, Ghad, and also some other synthetic medications that could be abused; like Tramadol which is known as Kharsh, and Benthic Zoll which is known as Akisol, and other tablets that may be abused by many people, and can lead to addiction with psycho-somatic manifestation, which bring the user to medical care of non-psychiatric accommodates and facilities due to Conversion, Nausea, Vomiting, Headache, also authioborosis with bone fractions and road traffic accidents.

Q10: What is the scientific definition of addiction?

A10: Addiction is defined as a dependence on substance with psychoactive consequences regarding behavior, thinking, mood, emotions, movement, or the way you do your normal job. There are 5 steps in addiction:-

1. The consumption of the substance.
2. The psychological dependence on the substance; feeling yourself not happy and having difficulties at early morning.
3. All accompanied with physical dependence; which mean if you stop consuming or using the amount of the substance that you take every time, you are going to experience physical symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, headache, conversions, increasing heart rates, arrhythmias, polyurea, and so on.
4. Besides Tolerance, which means you increase the amount of the psychoactive substance day after day to reach yesterday’s satisfaction; if you start by 1 cigarette of Cannabis, this 1 cigarette will be of no use the next day, you have to increase it to 1 and half cigarette; the third day will be 2 cigarette and so on until you reach what call “Half Rass“ per day.
5. Reinstatement is the fifth criteria of addiction: which means that the addict feels himself guilty, he/she wants to stop, and he actually stops but after one month, for example after Ramadan, he/she returns to the certain amount, it is called reinstatement.
6. The academic, social, political security deterioration. For example: the addict will kill, can divorce his wife, can go out of his home, low academic performance, losing his job, losing his social status, being handed in the street and so on.
7. Feeling guilty.
8. The eighth criteria is that all the time the addict puts the consumption of the substance as a top of his priority; the salary will firstly be for buying the substance, if not available he will start to sell the goods of his home, if not he is going to steal or make a crime or even make a gang e.g. “9 Taweela (people who use motor cycles for street robbery)” and so on to provide the daily quota of his substance.

Q11: What are the elementary symptoms of addiction?

A11: The general outlook of how you can diagnose addiction, or know that there is someone in your family of the neighborhood is addict or about to have addiction problem;

– It starts with behavior changes, for example: being restless, talkative, or in reverse: sleeping all the day, changing of habits, neglecting school’s homework, being with bad health although eating is well but there’s no good health or good shape. Besides this being what we call labeling difference; which is feeling indifferent to anything; have been fired from work no problem, fired from university he is indifferent for it.

– Changes in the eyes, when they are so narrow or so dilated according to the substance he/she consumes.

– Abortions.

– Loss of hair.

– Bad health.

– Insomnia.

– Poor sleep.

– Poor concentration.

– Low mood / change of mood.

– Sudden out birth.

– Anger control problems.

Q12: Do you have any records or statistics for addicts in Khartoum?

A12: Yes, we have 1,350 patients of addiction every day, regarding addiction as primary problem, or medical problems corelated to the basic consumption of drug abuse. For example: loosing of teeth, the patient goes to the dentist, but this is actually an addiction problem. A female having an abortion, miscarriage, or premature labor due to addiction. One driving his car, having a road traffic accident, he will go to the orthopedic department but his main question is addiction.

Q13: Can we say that the 1,350 cases of addiction could be a result of the failure of the revolution, which led to addiction?

A13: Yes. Actually, after the steeling of the revolution of December 2018 by politics in Sudan, a lot of youths have fabricated many dreams about new Sudan and new era of equality, equity, peace, and had been tricked by such thieves in our country, had been so depressed, this is called the Depression of Revolution, which led to a lot of addictive rends in such youths to overcome the inner pain and depression.

Q14: Is there a classification for those who are addicts? For example, ages or classes? Do you call them patients, or affected persons?

A14: Yes, we call them patients. Actually, starting from 9 -10 years ago, we started to have wider ranges of addicts up to 45- 60 years old.

Regarding classes; patients of addiction are of all classes. There is a myth in Sudan, that addiction is some sort of the high class or the rich people, no everyone now in Sudan could be an addict, because there are certain organizations and certain political fractions could distribute such substances to their members or even at streets; why? Firstly: to make a change in the social picture of the Sudanese society.

Secondly: in the past decade, Sudan was just drugs pathway to other countries like Gulf, Europe, and West Africa; but nowadays we have factories in Sudan to produce Captagon and Ice (Meth Crystal). Now addiction have been transformed to be an industry, and is becoming to be one of the social criteria of Sudanese. Addiction have been changed to be one of everyday practices; there are some families changed towards drug addict and drug trades to produce money for their daily use, and to assist others at their uses of drug cartel or gangs. Unfortunately; these societies or groups are well known to the security forces, they see them at courts, they pay the fines of their convicted traffickers, and they support their families during the prison time of their convicted person. Addition now is a social system and social integration program!

Keep reading the news and articles at our website, as we will publish Part-3 which is the final part of the series of this interview with Professor Ali Baldo very soon.