218 Khat
dition of use. The “threat” probably has less to do with chemistry and more
to do with khat’s traditional societal role—helping people pass time genially
while they sit around and visit.
Around a century ago famed novelist Theodore Dreiser wrote a short story
“Khat” about using the substance. The story is an atmospheric portrayal of
the drug’s cultural context, how khat aided the functioning of a society that
had become archaic by the year 2000. The story is told from the perspective
of a beggar, and ironically, the society that despised the beggar is now itself
despised by Western modernists who condemn khat. A drug viewed as be-
nevolent by a disappearing world is viewed as a threat in a new world pos-
sessing different values. Yet nothing about khat’s chemistry has changed.
Tolerance appears to develop to some khat effects, such as elevations in
pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and respiration rate.
Drug interactions.The substance can interfere with amoxycillin and ampi-
cillin antibiotics.
Cancer.A study searching for a link between khat chewing and precancer-
ous conditions in the mouth found none, but some researchers feel the habit
promotes oral cancer, and others suspect that khat causes cancer of the esoph-
agus and stomach.
Pregnancy.Researchers have concluded that khat harms human sperm. Ex-
periments on mice indicate that khat lowers male fertility and promotes fetal
death from matings by those males. Rat experiments on females demonstrate
that khat can cause fetal death and birth defects. Women who chew khat
leaves tend to deliver lower-weight babies, but no birth defects were observed
in infants from a sample of over 500 pregnant khat users. Nursing mothers
can pass a psychoactive khat chemical into their milk, and the chemical can
be measured in an infant’s urine.
Additional information.Khat’s main effects are attributed to the presence
of the illegal drug cathinone (also called norephedrone), which is similar to
dextroamphetamineand can be manufactured in a laboratory. Volunteers tak-
ing cathinone show higher blood pressure and pulse rate, feel pepped up, and
have a brightened mood. Scientists believe the substance has pain-relieving
properties when given to rats. Animal experiments indicate the drug has 50%
or more of amphetamine’s strength and thatcaffeinehas a multiplier effect,
boosting the impact of a cathinone dose. Animal experiments find no aphro-
disiac qualities in cathinone but do find that it lowerstestosteronelevels and
harms sperm and testes. Compared to the natural product khat, the pure lab-
oratory drug has much more potential for harm. People can chew wads of
khat for hours and get no more than mild effects, but a person using the
pharmaceutical product can experience a much more powerful dose in an
instant.
Khat also contains cathine. Cathine’s effects are similar to cathinone but so
much weaker that khat users disdain old leaves that have lost cathinone but
still retain cathine. Laboratories can make cathine. The compound has been
known to produce cranial tics (uncontrollable jerking of the head) among per-
sons using it for weight loss. The drug has been found inma huangfood
supplements. A professional athlete was disqualified from competition after
consuming such a supplement without knowing it was cathine laced.