Catha Edulis - The Law

The Law

In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed khat a drug of abuse. But laws governing the use and possession of khat can be difficult to understand. For instance, the latest information available from DrugScope as of 2005 stated that "the khat plant itself is not controlled under the [U.K.] Misuse of

A family in Somalia carries a bag of fresh khat from a cargo plane at the airport. In Somalia chewing khat after a meal is common. In the United States and Canada, it is illegal. Liba Taylor/Corbis.
A family in Somalia carries a bag of fresh khat from a cargo plane at the airport. In Somalia chewing khat after a meal is common. In the United States and Canada, it is illegal. © Liba Taylor/Corbis.

Drugs Act, but the active ingredients, cathinone and cathine, are Class C drugs."

Khat in any form is illegal in the United States and Canada. Under the terms of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, cathinone is considered a Schedule I drug and cathine is considered a Schedule IV drug. Schedule I drugs (including heroin and the so-called designer drugs such as 2C-B and ecstasy) have no accepted medical value in the United States and are considered highly addictive. Penalties for distributing Schedule I drugs range from a minimum of five years to a maximum of life in prison. Schedule IV drugs have a lower potential for abuse but may lead to psychological dependence in the user. Cathinone and cathine are also controlled under the United Nations' Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

More Khat Seen in the United States

Khat leaves have been illegally bundled and shipped into the United States in increasing amounts since the 1990s. According to the statistics available from the NDIC at the beginning of 2005, "the amount of khat seized by federal law enforcement officers [in the United States] increased dramatically from 14 metric tons [about 31,000 pounds] in 1995 to 37 metric tons [about 82,000 pounds] in 2001. Moreover, in the first six months of 2002, federal officers seized nearly 30 metric tons [about 66,000 pounds] of the drug."

Khat was introduced on college campuses in the United States in the 1990s. A growing number of students began using the stimulant to stay up later at night. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), khat has not really caught on in the United States, though, probably because the high it produces is not as intense as the high produced by amphetamines. A pill called Hagigat, made of powdered khat leaves, was on the market briefly in 2004. Hagigat originated in Israel and was used for its stimulant effects, but it was quickly banned.

Bushman's Tea

The U.S. Department of Justice and the DrugScope Web sites, among others, provide various statistics about Catha edulis and khat. For example, did you know that:

  • The Catha edulis plant is probably older than the coffee plant and the two are often planted side by side.
  • The term edulis is derived from a Greek word meaning "edible."
  • References to khat in medical literature date back to the thirteenth century.
  • Khat is sometimes brewed into a tea and has acquired the street name Bushman's tea.
  • As of mid-2002, about 80 percent of all men in Yemen chewed khat daily.
  • Between a third and a half of the average Yemeni family's budget is spent on khat.
  • The women of Yemen have taken up the habit in growing numbers, with about 40 percent of the country's female population using it almost every day.
  • In the United States and the United Kingdom, khat use is most popular among immigrants from Yemen and the East African nations.

More than 2,200 pounds (998 kilograms) of khat were seized at the Dublin Airport in 2003. The bundles were being sent to New York from London when they were intercepted in Ireland. Raghavan reported in late 2002 that "khat fetches as much as $200 a pound" in the United States. That translates to about $30 to $50 per bundle.

Despite these sizable seizures, law enforcement efforts directed against khat use in the United States have been minimal. The NDIC predicts that "khat likely will become increasingly available in the United States" but will not become as popular on the streets as cocaine and methamphetamines. According to the "Intelligence Bulletin," "abuse of the drug will remain most prevalent in communities with large Somali, Ethiopian, and Yemeni populations."