Aidan Hartley Aidan Hartley

Ode to a leaf

A great white hunter takes aim at a few sacred cows in contemporary Africa

issue 21 January 2006

Laikipia

According to an imminent Home Office decree, I am on drugs, I cultivate drugs and I intend to push drugs. I thought Blair’s government was moving to decriminalise narcotics such as marijuana. Instead it wants to burden the police and customs further by banning the vegetable stimulant Catha edulis. Otherwise known as miraa, qat, or khat, this plant is grown in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, and millions chew it.

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