Twelve years after the death of the former Libyan dictator, the name Gaddafi is back on everyone's lips in Côte d'Ivoire. Not to celebrate the late leader, but in reference to a drug that is spreading among young people, marketed in tablet form and often consumed with alcohol, to increase its sedative effect tenfold.
The phenomenon began with a track by the previously virtually unknown group, 100 Papo, who posted an extract of the song on the TikTok social network this summer. The lyrics, in Nouchi, Ivorian slang, are repeated over and over again: Je veux wôrô mon kadhafi, which can be translated as "I want to get high on gaddafi." In images that have since circulated on social media, young people have presented themselves under the influence of the drug, or simulating its effects: haggard, barely standing, jaws sometimes clenched or faces covered in sweat. Gaddafi is now even the subject of dance-offs.
This was all it took for people to get alarmed, and for the police, who now deem the phenomenon to be a public health issue, to launch a nationwide campaign in early July. On September 6, the DPSD (Police Narcotics and Drugs Department) reported that it had already seized 5 tonnes of so-called "inferior quality," in other words counterfeit, drugs. Since the beginning of the month, spectacular seizures have taken place across the country, widely reported in the local press: 927 kg of tablets on September 12 in San Pedro (southwest), 16,000 tablets in Ferkessédougou (north). The latest raid, on Tuesday, September 19, took place at the Adjamé market in Abidjan, where the Roxy market stall, dedicated to medicines, was temporarily closed after a number of seizures. Gaddafi's supply channels have not yet been identified, but according to several sources they appear to be modeled on those for tramadol. Sold on the Indian market, tramadol is imported throughout the region. Seizures have been made in Ghana, Burkina Faso and as far afield as Niger.
The official version, given by the narcotics police and repeated by the Ivorian press, confuses the two drugs, no doubt because of the similarity between tramadol and one of Gaddafi's trade names, Tramaking. "It's not a drug," claimed DPSD Divisional Commissioner Touré Atchet Mabonga. "Rather, it's a preparation obtained by mixing drugs diverted from the official circuit with water or alcohol to obtain a strong sensation. These young people use 250 mg of tramadol, a painkiller generally prescribed for terminally ill patients, which they mix with Vody," a cheap alcoholic energy drink popular with young Ivorians.
In fact, a search of Indian online drug sales platforms reveals that Tramaking, also marketed under the name Royal, is composed of two active ingredients, carisoprodol and tapentadol. The former is a muscle relaxant, the latter a strong opioid prescribed for severe pain. Combined, the two can cause dangerous side effects: itching, discomfort, convulsions, fainting, even death in the event of overdose, explained Boris Affognon aka "Satchmo," community mobilizer with the Association for the Support of Sanitary and Urban Self-Promotion (ASAPSU). "A few days ago, while we were working in a smoking room in Bingerville [an open-air drug consumption area in a commune to the east of Abidjan], we had to intervene to save a young man who was choking on his tongue," he said. "We've already had deaths. They fall asleep and don't wake up."
Rather than use one of the trade names, consumers prefer to call the drug "apple," in reference to the fruit that adorns the drug boxes, or "225," which refers to the dosage of active ingredient in each tablet. And why the Gaddafi nickname? Here, the hypotheses diverge. For Samuel N'Guessan, who works in a harm reduction project with drug users, "the term appeared during and after the Ivorian crisis, between 2011 and 2013. At that time, emigration was in full swing in Côte d'Ivoire, and would-be exiles had to pass through Libya to reach Lampedusa. Many of the soldiers they met in Libya were taking these tablets, and Muammar Gaddafi had just died. I think that's where the name comes from."
Apart from the seizure figures provided by the DPSD, there are no national statistics on this narcotic, either in terms of the number of users or consumption habits. According to observers, the phenomenon is urban but is not confined to Abidjan. Major cities such as Yamoussoukro, Bouaké and San Pedro have also been affected. "Gaddafi is consumed where it is bought," said N'Guessan. "Either in the smoke shops that sell it or on the street, near the dealers." Even more than tramadol, gaddafi is used by the lower classes of the Ivorian population.
"We discovered it by regularly searching the streets for substances that made us feel good," said a 24-year-old Abidjan man who said he could get his supply anywhere. The new drug has two advantages over tramadol: longer-lasting effects and divisible tablets. "Four of us can get the money together," continued the young man, who wished to remain anonymous, "and each take a quarter of the tablet."
Unlike other narcotics, favored by middle- and upper-class youth, Gaddafi had the advantage of being inexpensive, costing between 200 and 500 CFA francs (between €0.30 and €0.76 euros) per tablet, depending on the neighborhood. But since TikTok got involved, the many seizures have caused prices to soar. It's now rare to find it for less than 1,000 CFA francs, or even 1,500 CFA francs.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.