LAW enforcement authorities are battling to deal effectively with nyaope-related arrests, resulting in a low prosecution rate if the matter reaches the courts at all.

Nyaope - a cheap drug sold mainly in Gauteng townships - presents a unique challenge to law enforcement in that it is a concoction of mostly "legal" substances and thus makes prosecution difficult.

The powder-like drug is a mixture of rat poison, heroin and anti-retroviral medications, among others.

It has devastating effects on the psyche, and is associated with violent behaviour.

Gauteng department of community safety spokesman Thapelo Moiloa said: "We are in a situation where police are experiencing difficulty with classifying nyaope in terms of an illicit drug. That is why we see few thorough investigations and convictions in these cases.

"We are appealing to our communities to blow the whistle on health workers who are helping criminals get these ARVs," Moiloa said.

Sowetan this week published a story about 14-year-old Sibusiso Mathebula of Ivory Park in Tembisa, near Midrand, who on Saturday doused himself with paraffin before setting himself alight.

He later died in hospital.

His family admitted Mathebula was a drug-user who sniffed glue, smoked dagga and took benzine and nyaope.

Ivory Park police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Neldah Hlase said: "We do have a big problem. Too often teachers call the police to go out and find school children with drugs."

Hlase said it was common for the nyaope crowd to bunk school or to be generally disruptive at school. She said dagga was growing wild in open fields in Tswelopele, Carltondale and Duduza informal settlements in Tembisa, among other areas.

Also this week, Sowetan published a story that showed dagga growing on an open patch that's bigger than a soccer field at Boitumelong Senior Secondary School in Tembisa.

Police confiscated large amounts of dagga from the same field four years ago. Hlase said nyaope smokers had organised themselves into gangs in the area and call themselves "Ruff 3".

Moiloa said his department had identified nyaope as a ticking time-bomb and that plans were afoot to expand a drug rehabilitation programme that was piloted in Hammanskraal, where youths were given an opportunity to clean-up.

"There were some who relapsed, but overall the programme was a success. We will be taking it to other townships like Mamelodi (Pretoria) and Ivory Park," Moiloa said.

He said anti-drug awareness campaigns were being planned for Ivory Park, but emphasised that police also had to come to the party, saying that their visibility in communities was a natural deterrent for criminal elements.

Gauteng department of social development spokesman Sello Mokoena said no research has been conducted on the prevalence of drugs in Gauteng, but "according to the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (Sacendu), 12% of people admitted to treatment centres is for dagga and heroin use, and 82% of teenage heroin patients are black".

He said Ivory Park did have a high prevalence of substance abuse.

"We are continuing with the Ke Moja Drug Prevention programme, which is rendered in schools across the province to promote awareness about the negative effects of alcohol and drugs," Mokoena said.

He said the department was funding an organisation that serviced Ebony Park and Ivory Park with prevention, awareness, out-patient treatment services, after-care and reintegration services.

- moengk@sowetan.co.za

This article was first printed in the published newspaper on 25 January 2013