When Dateline's Fouad Hady goes out on assignment, we're often surprised by what he films and the situations in which he finds himself. On this occasion, Fouad's trained his camera on an entire nation that's - well - stoned on a very popular narcotic leaf. Not only that - what is he doing dancing at a wedding with a large dagger in his belt? Here's Fouad.
REPORTER: Fouad Hady
When I arrived in Yemen I was surprised. Every day, after lunch, the whole country comes to a stop. Wherever I went, people in groups, chewing on leaves - men, women, even children.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you chew khat?
CHILD (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How many times a day?
CHILD (Translation): Every day.
REPORTER (Translation): Every day? But you are young.
CHILD (Translation): I’m big.
REPORTER (Translation): You are not big.
CHILD (Translation): I’m bigger than everyone.
I want to find out what has happened to this country.
REPORTER (Translation): Peace be upon you, Haji.
MAN (Translation): And upon you.
REPORTER (Translation): How are you?
MAN (Translation): Fine, thank you.
REPORTER (Translation): So you will tell us about this khat tree?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
Here in Yemen it's called khat. The young leaves of this tree contain a narcotic drug called cathinone. It is illegal in many countries but not here in Yemen. Here it is part of their lives - their culture.
REPORTER (Translation): Okay, so you grow khat. Do you chew it too?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Daily?
MAN (Translation): Daily.
Some have told me it focuses the mind, helps you to study, makes you relax, aids communication, can even help you to stay healthy.
MAN 2 (Translation): If you have a fever or a pain, it cures you, it helps you.
Others say it is the devil's tree.
DEMONSTRATOR (Translation): For this malignant plant, Yemenis are giving away everything they own.
MAN 3 (Translation): When you start chewing, you feel this ecstasy. It makes you feel successful when you are the biggest loser.
They say it is destroying the land, the economy and the people. One thing is for sure - khat has taken over this country.
MAN (Translation): For us, khat is a normal thing, just like rocket, like salad…
Khat features in every social event - from meetings of the Government, to this young man's wedding.
MAN (Translation): Khat is used with everything, it lets you enjoy the oud music at weddings.
REPORTER (Translation): So khat is a tradition at weddings?
MAN (Translation): Khat is a must at a wedding.
This is a typical wedding in Yemen - all the time chewing on the leaf of the khat tree.
MAN (Translation): As far as I am concerned, I would not attend a wedding if there was no khat.
I head out to see the khat farms. I see two young boys in the trees.
REPORTER (Translation): What are you doing guys?
AHMED (Translation): Picking khat.
REPORTER (Translation): Khat?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Who for?
AHMED (Translation): To chew it.
REPORTER (Translation): You chew it?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How long have you been chewing for?
AHMED (Translation): One year.
REPORTER (Translation): One year?
It is Mohammed and Ahmed.
REPORTER (Translation): How much do you chew to get drugged?
AHMED (Translation): Half a bag.
REPORTER (Translation): Half a bag? So you chew all that you are carrying?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): It drugs you? You feel happy?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you sell it?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How much is this bag you are holding?
MOHAMMED (Translation): What?
REPORTER (Translation): How much is this bag?
MOHAMMED (Translation): These would be 500.
REPORTER (Translation): 500?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes.
The next day I go to the markets - shop after shop selling nothing but leaves. Mohammed is here, selling the khat he picked that morning.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): How much is it?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Five bags.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Not worth that much.
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): 350.
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Will you sell for 350?
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Will you sell for 400?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes, 400.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Yes, 400.
MOHAMMED (Translation): Sold.
MAN: As you can see in every area here and in all cities, we have a market for khat...
I meet a man who has come to buy some leaves. He wants to show me around.
MAN: We can see, we can attend one of these. For example, half a kilo - 2,000 rial, okay. So half a kilo of khat cost 2,000 rial. This is like another kind of selling of khat.
At the bottom end of the market are the street sellers.
MAN: As you can see here they are young people selling khat, as you can see. Imagine that, he is thirteen years old.
REPORTER: They are brothers?
MAN: Yeah, they are brothers. They are collecting money for their family by selling this khat.
Some looked even younger.
REPORTER (Translation): How much is it?
CHILD (Translation): 350.
REPORTER (Translation): 350? This is a lot, isn’t it?
I saw a disturbance. A small group of men and women with a banner were being jeered by the crowd.
MAN (Translation): They cut off people’s livelihood – millions live off khat.
MAN 2 (Translation): Don’t trouble yourself, no one will quit khat, no matter what you do.
Holding the banner are men and women from the Eradah Foundation for a Khat Free Nation.
ERADAH FOUNDATION MEMBER (Translation): Today we went on a field trip to one of the khat markets to educate the people on how they could use the money that they spend on khat. We got into the khat market but we were rudely kicked out.
MAN 3 (Translation): Awareness campaigns should have started 30 years ago, not now. Why are you promoting awareness now? We are with…Listen. We’re with Khat Free Nation and all that bit it’s over, brother, the whole population chews. Who doesn’t chew?
I was beginning to think, this man may be right.
MAN 3 (Translation): God will fix things. Chop down the trees and people will quit or else no one will quit.
But I was interested in what the people from the Foundation hoped to achieve. They sent me to a football match. This competition is sponsored by the Foundation.
QAIS AL-YOUSSEFI, ERADAH FOUNDATION (Translation): Khat has been in Yemeni society for hundreds of years but recently it has taken over large areas of rich agricultural land that used to be planted with coffee, almonds, vegetables and fruit.
I meet with Qais Al-Youssefi, he is the media officer for the Foundation for a Khat-Free Nation.
QAIS AL-YOUSSEFI (Translation): 95% of produce used to be grown locally – that was from the 70s up to the mid 80s. At the start of the 21st century, the importation of foodstuffs rose to 92% with domestic production comprising just 8%.
The Foundation is running awareness campaigns across the country. They take me to a school. Trying to get his message across to the girls is Mr Naser al Shama from the Foundation.
NASER AL SHAMA (Translation): Khat in Yemen at the present time has become a real impediment to development, it has become a threat to our future, to the future of female and male students and the whole country.
A young girl tells me how she used to chew khat.
GIRL (Translation): Yes, I used to chew it, my father chewed it and my mother did. My father used to go to khat sessions and my mother used to go too and I did as well.
REPORTER (Translation): How do you handle your studies while chewing khat?
GIRL (Translation): I used to study with khat, I used to study while chewing it and when I spat it out I’d feel I hadn’t studied at all. I would feel lost.
REPORTER (Translation): Are you still using khat?
GIRL (Translation): No, that’s it. Thank God, my level has improved without khat.
REPORTER (Translation): Do your parents still chew?
GIRL (Translation): No, before he died my father asked me not to chew.
REPORTER (Translation): He died? And your mum?
GIRL (Translation): She doesn’t use it any more.
REPORTER (Translation): She stopped it?
GIRL (Translation): Yes, good.
REPORTER (Translation): Thank you.
GIRL (Translation): You are welcome.
By targeting the young people, the Foundation hopes that change will come with a new generation. But khat has taken over this country.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: Actually the role of all of the NGO associates which has started in the last five, six years, two tackle and help the government to solve this problem, but until now it is considered as a good effort but small effort as khat is a very big problem.
At Sanaa's university, the head of the medical faculty, Professor Husni Al Goshae, believes it's time for the Yemeni Government to stop treating khat as just a harmless habit.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: If the Yemeni government recognise this problem as narcotic as a drug, I think we can start to solve this problem. But until now...
Professor Al Goshae knows that the effects of khat, on both the mind and the body, can be devastating.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: Starting from insomnia, difficulty in sleep, irritability, up to severe psychosis and we saw some cases of schizophrenia also in people chewing khat. They found the increase incidence of cancer in people chewing khat.
At a nearby clinic for patients with liver disease I see for myself people with problems.
REPORTER (Translation): What is your problem?
PATIENT (Translation): Toxins in the liver because of khat. I get treated, I chew, the disease recurs. This is my third time.
REPORTER (Translation): Now you are paying the price.
PATIENT (Translation): I am paying the price in sickness, I chewed it once and the disease returned.
REPORTER (Translation): Will you quit for good?
PATIENT (Translation): That’s it, if it recurs I will die.
In the lobby of my hotel is a small shop. Like everywhere else here, it gets very quiet in the afternoons.
YOUNIS (Translation): We chew khat night and day, that’s it. It runs in our blood now.
Younis and Mahmoud run the shop. Quitting would be the last thing on their minds.
REPORTER (Translation): What do you feel? What do you feel when you use it?
YOUNIS (Translation): You feel stoned. Khat makes you feel stoned. If it didn’t have this effect, you wouldn’t look for it day after day after day. After lunch, you look for khat. You chew, you eat, then you look for khat at night. You feel everything is great even when you have all the worries in the world. This is the magic of khat. Then you start thinking about where to get the stuff for the next day’s chewing.
With so many addicted to khat, the pressure on the land has increased. Farmers are not growing food anymore - khat is far more profitable but it is also a thirsty crop. These tankers are waiting to be filled with water. It will be taken to the khat farms that surround Yemen's capital city, Sanaa. But the Foundation is very worried about the amount of water that is being used to grow this drug. This pipe is down to the water table beneath the city.
REPORTER (Translation): How deep was the well?
MAN (Translation): 150.
REPORTER (Translation): 150 metres. Is there always water?
MAN (Translation): It is less than before.
REPORTER (Translation): It has to be deepened?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How many metres?
MAN (Translation): 200.
REPORTER (Translation): 200?
MAN (Translation): 250.
REPORTER (Translation): 250 metres. So ground water is decreasing?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
This is Sanaa's water supply, and it is drying out. The future for Yemen was not looking good. But the people from the Foundation for a Khat-Free Nation have invited me to another wedding – this one celebrated without khat. This is the groom, his name is Jihad. It was his idea to hold a khat-free wedding.
JIHAD, GROOM (Translation): Praise be to God, you can now see a fine group of people and happy faces, with no grumpiness, no anger, no getting high or any of the things that are talked about in Yemeni society.
This is very different to the first wedding that I went to. I much prefer it and I join in the dancing. Khat-free occasions like this may be becoming more common, according to the Foundation, but I can see they still have a huge task ahead of them.
JIHAD, GROOM (Translation): It’s not important that they quit khat now but that they realise we can hold our weddings and our funerals and all our occasions in Yemen without this noxious plant that has caused us problems in all our affairs in Yemen.
Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixers
NASSER AL SHAMMAa
QAIS ALYOUSEFI
Editor
MICAH MCGOWN
NICK O’BRIEN
Translations/Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO
DALIA MATAR
Original Music Composed by VICKI HANSEN
Man Enjoying his Khat photograph by Ferdinand Reus
REPORTER: Fouad Hady
When I arrived in Yemen I was surprised. Every day, after lunch, the whole country comes to a stop. Wherever I went, people in groups, chewing on leaves - men, women, even children.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you chew khat?
CHILD (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How many times a day?
CHILD (Translation): Every day.
REPORTER (Translation): Every day? But you are young.
CHILD (Translation): I’m big.
REPORTER (Translation): You are not big.
CHILD (Translation): I’m bigger than everyone.
I want to find out what has happened to this country.
REPORTER (Translation): Peace be upon you, Haji.
MAN (Translation): And upon you.
REPORTER (Translation): How are you?
MAN (Translation): Fine, thank you.
REPORTER (Translation): So you will tell us about this khat tree?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
Here in Yemen it's called khat. The young leaves of this tree contain a narcotic drug called cathinone. It is illegal in many countries but not here in Yemen. Here it is part of their lives - their culture.
REPORTER (Translation): Okay, so you grow khat. Do you chew it too?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Daily?
MAN (Translation): Daily.
Some have told me it focuses the mind, helps you to study, makes you relax, aids communication, can even help you to stay healthy.
MAN 2 (Translation): If you have a fever or a pain, it cures you, it helps you.
Others say it is the devil's tree.
DEMONSTRATOR (Translation): For this malignant plant, Yemenis are giving away everything they own.
MAN 3 (Translation): When you start chewing, you feel this ecstasy. It makes you feel successful when you are the biggest loser.
They say it is destroying the land, the economy and the people. One thing is for sure - khat has taken over this country.
MAN (Translation): For us, khat is a normal thing, just like rocket, like salad…
Khat features in every social event - from meetings of the Government, to this young man's wedding.
MAN (Translation): Khat is used with everything, it lets you enjoy the oud music at weddings.
REPORTER (Translation): So khat is a tradition at weddings?
MAN (Translation): Khat is a must at a wedding.
This is a typical wedding in Yemen - all the time chewing on the leaf of the khat tree.
MAN (Translation): As far as I am concerned, I would not attend a wedding if there was no khat.
I head out to see the khat farms. I see two young boys in the trees.
REPORTER (Translation): What are you doing guys?
AHMED (Translation): Picking khat.
REPORTER (Translation): Khat?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Who for?
AHMED (Translation): To chew it.
REPORTER (Translation): You chew it?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How long have you been chewing for?
AHMED (Translation): One year.
REPORTER (Translation): One year?
It is Mohammed and Ahmed.
REPORTER (Translation): How much do you chew to get drugged?
AHMED (Translation): Half a bag.
REPORTER (Translation): Half a bag? So you chew all that you are carrying?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): It drugs you? You feel happy?
AHMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you sell it?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How much is this bag you are holding?
MOHAMMED (Translation): What?
REPORTER (Translation): How much is this bag?
MOHAMMED (Translation): These would be 500.
REPORTER (Translation): 500?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes.
The next day I go to the markets - shop after shop selling nothing but leaves. Mohammed is here, selling the khat he picked that morning.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): How much is it?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Five bags.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Not worth that much.
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): 350.
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Will you sell for 350?
MOHAMMED (Translation): No.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Will you sell for 400?
MOHAMMED (Translation): Yes, 400.
SHOPKEEPER (Translation): Yes, 400.
MOHAMMED (Translation): Sold.
MAN: As you can see in every area here and in all cities, we have a market for khat...
I meet a man who has come to buy some leaves. He wants to show me around.
MAN: We can see, we can attend one of these. For example, half a kilo - 2,000 rial, okay. So half a kilo of khat cost 2,000 rial. This is like another kind of selling of khat.
At the bottom end of the market are the street sellers.
MAN: As you can see here they are young people selling khat, as you can see. Imagine that, he is thirteen years old.
REPORTER: They are brothers?
MAN: Yeah, they are brothers. They are collecting money for their family by selling this khat.
Some looked even younger.
REPORTER (Translation): How much is it?
CHILD (Translation): 350.
REPORTER (Translation): 350? This is a lot, isn’t it?
I saw a disturbance. A small group of men and women with a banner were being jeered by the crowd.
MAN (Translation): They cut off people’s livelihood – millions live off khat.
MAN 2 (Translation): Don’t trouble yourself, no one will quit khat, no matter what you do.
Holding the banner are men and women from the Eradah Foundation for a Khat Free Nation.
ERADAH FOUNDATION MEMBER (Translation): Today we went on a field trip to one of the khat markets to educate the people on how they could use the money that they spend on khat. We got into the khat market but we were rudely kicked out.
MAN 3 (Translation): Awareness campaigns should have started 30 years ago, not now. Why are you promoting awareness now? We are with…Listen. We’re with Khat Free Nation and all that bit it’s over, brother, the whole population chews. Who doesn’t chew?
I was beginning to think, this man may be right.
MAN 3 (Translation): God will fix things. Chop down the trees and people will quit or else no one will quit.
But I was interested in what the people from the Foundation hoped to achieve. They sent me to a football match. This competition is sponsored by the Foundation.
QAIS AL-YOUSSEFI, ERADAH FOUNDATION (Translation): Khat has been in Yemeni society for hundreds of years but recently it has taken over large areas of rich agricultural land that used to be planted with coffee, almonds, vegetables and fruit.
I meet with Qais Al-Youssefi, he is the media officer for the Foundation for a Khat-Free Nation.
QAIS AL-YOUSSEFI (Translation): 95% of produce used to be grown locally – that was from the 70s up to the mid 80s. At the start of the 21st century, the importation of foodstuffs rose to 92% with domestic production comprising just 8%.
The Foundation is running awareness campaigns across the country. They take me to a school. Trying to get his message across to the girls is Mr Naser al Shama from the Foundation.
NASER AL SHAMA (Translation): Khat in Yemen at the present time has become a real impediment to development, it has become a threat to our future, to the future of female and male students and the whole country.
A young girl tells me how she used to chew khat.
GIRL (Translation): Yes, I used to chew it, my father chewed it and my mother did. My father used to go to khat sessions and my mother used to go too and I did as well.
REPORTER (Translation): How do you handle your studies while chewing khat?
GIRL (Translation): I used to study with khat, I used to study while chewing it and when I spat it out I’d feel I hadn’t studied at all. I would feel lost.
REPORTER (Translation): Are you still using khat?
GIRL (Translation): No, that’s it. Thank God, my level has improved without khat.
REPORTER (Translation): Do your parents still chew?
GIRL (Translation): No, before he died my father asked me not to chew.
REPORTER (Translation): He died? And your mum?
GIRL (Translation): She doesn’t use it any more.
REPORTER (Translation): She stopped it?
GIRL (Translation): Yes, good.
REPORTER (Translation): Thank you.
GIRL (Translation): You are welcome.
By targeting the young people, the Foundation hopes that change will come with a new generation. But khat has taken over this country.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: Actually the role of all of the NGO associates which has started in the last five, six years, two tackle and help the government to solve this problem, but until now it is considered as a good effort but small effort as khat is a very big problem.
At Sanaa's university, the head of the medical faculty, Professor Husni Al Goshae, believes it's time for the Yemeni Government to stop treating khat as just a harmless habit.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: If the Yemeni government recognise this problem as narcotic as a drug, I think we can start to solve this problem. But until now...
Professor Al Goshae knows that the effects of khat, on both the mind and the body, can be devastating.
PROFESSOR HUSNI AL GOSHAE: Starting from insomnia, difficulty in sleep, irritability, up to severe psychosis and we saw some cases of schizophrenia also in people chewing khat. They found the increase incidence of cancer in people chewing khat.
At a nearby clinic for patients with liver disease I see for myself people with problems.
REPORTER (Translation): What is your problem?
PATIENT (Translation): Toxins in the liver because of khat. I get treated, I chew, the disease recurs. This is my third time.
REPORTER (Translation): Now you are paying the price.
PATIENT (Translation): I am paying the price in sickness, I chewed it once and the disease returned.
REPORTER (Translation): Will you quit for good?
PATIENT (Translation): That’s it, if it recurs I will die.
In the lobby of my hotel is a small shop. Like everywhere else here, it gets very quiet in the afternoons.
YOUNIS (Translation): We chew khat night and day, that’s it. It runs in our blood now.
Younis and Mahmoud run the shop. Quitting would be the last thing on their minds.
REPORTER (Translation): What do you feel? What do you feel when you use it?
YOUNIS (Translation): You feel stoned. Khat makes you feel stoned. If it didn’t have this effect, you wouldn’t look for it day after day after day. After lunch, you look for khat. You chew, you eat, then you look for khat at night. You feel everything is great even when you have all the worries in the world. This is the magic of khat. Then you start thinking about where to get the stuff for the next day’s chewing.
With so many addicted to khat, the pressure on the land has increased. Farmers are not growing food anymore - khat is far more profitable but it is also a thirsty crop. These tankers are waiting to be filled with water. It will be taken to the khat farms that surround Yemen's capital city, Sanaa. But the Foundation is very worried about the amount of water that is being used to grow this drug. This pipe is down to the water table beneath the city.
REPORTER (Translation): How deep was the well?
MAN (Translation): 150.
REPORTER (Translation): 150 metres. Is there always water?
MAN (Translation): It is less than before.
REPORTER (Translation): It has to be deepened?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER (Translation): How many metres?
MAN (Translation): 200.
REPORTER (Translation): 200?
MAN (Translation): 250.
REPORTER (Translation): 250 metres. So ground water is decreasing?
MAN (Translation): Yes.
This is Sanaa's water supply, and it is drying out. The future for Yemen was not looking good. But the people from the Foundation for a Khat-Free Nation have invited me to another wedding – this one celebrated without khat. This is the groom, his name is Jihad. It was his idea to hold a khat-free wedding.
JIHAD, GROOM (Translation): Praise be to God, you can now see a fine group of people and happy faces, with no grumpiness, no anger, no getting high or any of the things that are talked about in Yemeni society.
This is very different to the first wedding that I went to. I much prefer it and I join in the dancing. Khat-free occasions like this may be becoming more common, according to the Foundation, but I can see they still have a huge task ahead of them.
JIHAD, GROOM (Translation): It’s not important that they quit khat now but that they realise we can hold our weddings and our funerals and all our occasions in Yemen without this noxious plant that has caused us problems in all our affairs in Yemen.
Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixers
NASSER AL SHAMMAa
QAIS ALYOUSEFI
Editor
MICAH MCGOWN
NICK O’BRIEN
Translations/Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO
DALIA MATAR
Original Music Composed by VICKI HANSEN
Man Enjoying his Khat photograph by Ferdinand Reus