SOME commercial sex workers in Kitwe are reportedly using drugs for mental illnesses to lace drinks for their unsuspecting clients to make them oversleep and steal from them. One of the drugs being abused is an antipsychotic drug for treating schizophrenia and mania mental disorders. Investigations by the Daily Mail have revealed that the drug is highly sought by sex workers, who use it to drug their clients before stealing from them. The sex workers often buy the drug from mental patients, who sell one tablet at between K5 and K10. Ann Bwalya (not real name), of Kitwe’s Ndeke Township,

suffers from a mental disorder called Manic Depressive Psychosis, and is one of the patients who supply the drug to sex workers. Bwalya told the Daily Mail that her clients include sex workers and bar owners. She gets the drugs from Ndola, where she receives treatment from. Bwalya doubts being mentally ill and refuses to take the drugs but sells them to sex workers and bar owners.

She has clients in Ndeke, Nkana East, Wusakile, Chamboli, Riverside and the central business district. Bwalya says when a person takes the drug, they sleep for many hours. When contacted for a comment over the matter, Chainama Mental Health Hospital public relations officer George Tafuna said the institution has been receiving reports about people abusing the drugs.

Mr Tafuna said one of the drugs is a depressant used to treat people with major mental illnesses such as mania and schizophrenia. He said people who abuse the drug also use it as a sex stimulant because it prolongs libido in men. “The drug slows the activity of the brain. Someone who has taken the drug will have a high libido because the brain will be inactive,” Mr Tafuna said. He also said the drug can cause serious drowsiness and can kill when taken by elderly people.

Mr Tafuna said someone who has taken the drug can sleep the whole day without waking up while others often have audio and visual hallucinations. He said another drug is being abused as a mood stimulant. “Sometimes you will see people working without getting tired. They sometimes take this drug, which is also used as a sex stimulant,” Mr Tafuna said. He said a taskforce has been constituted to c