South Africa's central position in a drug-smuggling route between West Asia and Europe plays a role in how the market changed.
Listen to this article 7 min Listen to this article 7 min The street price of heroin has fallen dramatically over the past two decades in South Africa, leading to a proliferation of cheap heroin markets across the country.
In 2004, heroin cost about R215 a gram in Cape Town. A recent study showed that in 2020, it was just R123 on average in the same city. If we factor in inflation over this period, then this means the real price of the drug is about a quarter what it was in 2004. (A gram is typically about three or four hits or highs for injecting users.)
This sharp decline in price has gone hand in hand with a large increase in heroin use over a similar period.
Most registered rehabilitation centres are monitored by the Sacendu (South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use) project, which is run by the South African Medical Research Council. In 2006, only 6% of people who were admitted to Sacendu-linked rehabs were there because of opiates (a class of drug which includes heroin). By 2023, that figure had tripled to 17%, according to Jodilee Erasmus, a scientist at Sacendu....
