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Hamza, a 26-year-old Moroccan, once had a steady job and fiancee. He occasionally used recreational drugs at parties with friends, but he was not an addict.
Then he was encouraged to try pufa, also known as “cocaine for the poor.” The synthetic drug made from cocaine or crystal methamphetamine waste can be cut with battery acid, engine oil, shampoo, salt, baking soda and ammonia. Users usually smoke it, but sometimes they inject it.
“[My friends] told me that I was wasting my money on soft drugs with an obsolete effect,” Hamza, a pseudonym, told Morocco’s L’Observateur du Maroc et de l’Afrique newspaper. “So, I took my first dose. It was ecstasy, a sensation never tested and which I immediately loved. Quickly, I took a liking to it, and I immediately tried again.”
Hamza got hooked and his life quickly unraveled. Unable to concentrate, he lost his job. Unable to control his emotions, he lost his fiancee and quarreled with his parents, with whom he lived. When he didn’t have enough money to buy pufa, he stole from family and friends.
“My disillusioned father ended up kicking me out of the house,” Hamza said. “Before leaving, I tried to hit him. I attacked my own father.”
Homeless on the streets of Casablanca, Hamza told the newspaper he now lives only “to pick up drugs.”
Stories like Hamza’s are growing more common among teenagers and young adults in Morocco, where pufa is popular due to its affordability and availability. A gram costs between 50 and 60 Moroccan dirham (about $5 or $6). Users typically buy the drug from a dealer or manufacture it themselves. Experts say addiction can occur within three uses.
“Those who take this drug attack themselves and their assets and create a kind of chaos, because taking this drug gives the user a strong charge of aggression, which leads to violent crimes,” Omar Arbib, head of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights in Marrakesh, told Moroccan news website Hespress.
Besides causing aggression, pufa use is associated with schizophrenia, paranoia and depression, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
Pufa use also can lead to skin infections, ulcers, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary distress, kidney problems, fever, severe headaches, insomnia, convulsions, hallucinations and even sudden death. It has been linked to crimes such as money laundering and human trafficking.
The drug is most prevalent in poor communities and schools. Almost 4,300 pufa dealers were arrested during the 2022-23 school year, according to the ISS.
“Vulnerable adolescents fall easy prey to these kind of drugs, because of immaturity and incapability to view things from an informed, insightful angle,” Rachida El Mokrie Elidrissi, head of the National Coalition Against Narcotics, told Hespress.
Morocco’s spike in pufa use coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, when dealers began producing a drug more affordable than cocaine. More than 3,000 addicts are registered in drug rehabilitation centers in northern Morocco, the ISS reported.
Amid a series of pufa-related arrests last year, Hassan Al-Baghdadi, head of the National Society for Combating Smoking and Drugs, told Hespress that jail sentences for pufa dealers should be much harsher. He said current sentences “do not exceed three months or a year or a temporary release sentence.”
Arbib called for a “sweeping campaign that addresses not only consumers but also promoters, from the small promoter to the drug barons.” He stressed the urgency to establish a “real economic policy to monitor money laundering while carrying out awareness-raising media campaigns.”
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