Khat

• 1. Introduction

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  Khat is a shrub from the highlands of eastern Africa, and one daily bag of its leaves takes an estimated 500 litres of water to grow. Farmers sell the fresh leaves to be chewed, and millions of people treat them as a daily ritual.

  The plant has also split the world's lawmakers. In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia it is sold in the open. In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates it is banned outright, and in the Emirates the punishment can reach life imprisonment.

  This documentary asks three questions. What is inside a khat leaf that makes people chew it for hours? Who first wrote about it, and what did they make of it? And why have governments looked at one plant and reached such opposite verdicts?

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• 2. The Shrub and Its Names

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  Between 1,100 and 2,400 metres above sea level, in forests beside mountain rivers, Catha edulis grows wild. Its native range stretches from Ethiopia and South Sudan all the way to Angola and the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It belongs to the family Celastraceae and is the only species in its genus.

  Seven to eight years pass before a khat plant reaches full height. It grows slowly, usually in dry country between 5 and 35 degrees Celsius, and can reach 10 metres near the equator. Apart from sun and water, it asks little of a farmer.

  In some places, farmers pump groundwater from deep wells with diesel engines, or have water brought in by truck. Watering becomes heavy about a month before harvest, which leaves the leaves and stems soft and moist. A healthy plant can be harvested four times a year, giving a farmer income all year round.

  The flowers are small, with five white petals, and grow on short clusters. The fruit is an oblong capsule with three valves, holding one to three seeds. Farmers grow it in Uganda's central region, including Kasenge in Wakiso, and in Kenya's Meru County and Embu County.

  Few plants collect as many names as this one. The genus name Catha is a Latinised form of the Arabic word written qāt. Other spellings include kat, quatt, qaad, qhat, ghat and chat.

  Yemeni Arabic speakers say qat or gat, and Somali speakers say qaat or jaad. In Oromo it is jimaa, in Luganda mayirungi, and in Swahili miraa or muguka. Nicknames include Abyssinian tea, Arabian tea and flower of paradise, while South Africans call it Bushman's tea.

  Traditional texts of the Indian subcontinent know the plant by its Unani name, Kat or Qaat.

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• 3. Chemistry of a Fresh Leaf

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  In 1975, researchers isolated an alkaloid called cathinone from khat, and by 1978 they had pinned down its exact molecular arrangement. Until then, the plant's kick had been credited to a compound named cathine, once called "katin". Reports then showed that extracts from fresh leaves held another substance with a stronger effect on behaviour.

  Cathinone is fragile. It breaks down into cathine and norephedrine, and its structure is very close to that of amphetamine. Once the leaves dry, cathinone decomposes within 48 hours and leaves the milder cathine behind.

  That 48-hour clock shapes the whole trade. Harvesters pack fresh leaves and stems in plastic bags or wrap them in banana leaves to hold in moisture. They also sprinkle the plant with water often, or use refrigeration in transit.

  Chewing releases both chemicals, and they pass into the body through the lining of the mouth and the stomach. Tests on lab animals showed that the two compounds slow the body's recycling of the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine. That slower recycling explains the wakefulness and the sleeplessness that follow a chewing session.

  Serotonin receptors show a strong attraction to cathinone, which suggests it drives the feeling of euphoria. In mice, it produces the pacing and repeated scratching also seen with amphetamines. Its effects peak after 15 to 30 minutes, and the liver turns nearly 98% of it into norephedrine.

  Cathine is less well understood. It is believed to trigger the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, and in humans it has a half-life of about three hours.

  Khat is sometimes mixed up with methcathinone, a Schedule I substance nicknamed cat. Methcathinone has a similar structure, but its side effects and addictive pull are much stronger.

  A medication called bromocriptine can ease cravings and withdrawal symptoms within 24 hours.

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• 4. What Chewing Does

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  The medieval Mamluk historian al-Maqrizi wrote that the leaves of "jaat" bring "a sharpening of the intellect, an increase of memory, an exhilaration of the spirit". He added that they also dull appetite and desire and make sleep unwelcome.

  Modern descriptions are similar but cooler. Khat gives mild euphoria and excitement, comparable to strong coffee, and chewers become very talkative. Animal tests show a rise in physical activity.

  The onset is quick. Oral cathinone acts in roughly 15 minutes, against roughly 30 minutes for amphetamine pills. Heavy use can bring manic behaviour and hyperactivity, much as amphetamine does.

  The body shows its own signs. Pupils dilate, heart rate and blood pressure climb, and the bowels slow into constipation. Khat is an effective appetite suppressant.

  Long-term use can leave a greenish tinge on the teeth for good, along with a susceptibility to ulcers and a weaker sex drive. Listed long-term risks also include depression, oral cancer and a higher chance of heart attack. Excess can bring poisoning and nausea.

  Whether khat directly harms mental health remains unclear. Now and then a chewer has a psychotic episode that looks like a hypomanic state. Women chew far less often than men, though use during pregnancy has been linked with a greater chance of adverse outcomes.

  Over long periods of chewing, users describe an uplifted mood and a sense of release from time and space.

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• 5. Early Written Records

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  In the 14th century, the Arab historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari recorded the people of the Ifat Sultanate using khat. The plant most likely began in the Ethiopia and Somali region and spread to Kenya and the Arabian Peninsula. The 19th-century British explorer Richard Burton traced it to the Emirate of Harar.

  Muslim Sufis in the surrounding areas also chewed it. They used it to deepen their mystical experience and to feel a sense of union with God. In the Horn of Africa and Arabia, chewing khat is older than drinking coffee, and it plays a similar social role.

  The earliest known description comes from the 11th century. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, a Persian scientist, covered it in his work on pharmacy, the Kitab al-Saidala fi al-Tibb. He did not know where it grew and called it a commodity from Turkestan, reddish with a slight blackish tinge. A 13th-century physician, Naguib Ad-Din, mentioned it again.

  In 1854, the Malay author Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir visited Al Hudaydah in Yemen and was struck by the sight of everyone chewing leaves like goats chewing cud. He saw heaps of leftovers piled before the chewers and noticed their green saliva. When he asked what good the leaves did, the answer was, "None whatsoever, it's just another expense for us as we've grown accustomed to it." He added that chewers had to eat plenty of ghee and honey or fall ill.

  Two years later, in 1856, Charles Dickens described the custom in the Horn region and the nearby Gulf lands. He wrote that the leaves acted on the spirits "much as a strong dose of green tea acts upon us in Europe". Camels carried the leaves in small parcels of about forty twigs, wrapped to keep out the air, and Aden alone used about 280 camel-loads a year.

  Later, the British-governed Aden Protectorate banned khat. A Qāt Commission of Inquiry then concluded that "Qāt does not create an addiction, like opium or hashish", because people suddenly deprived of it suffered no physical consequences.

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• 6. Yemen's Green Economy

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  In 2000, a World Bank estimate put khat at 30% of Yemen's economy. Between 1970 and 2000, the land under khat was estimated to have grown from 8,000 to 103,000 hectares. Before Yemeni unification in 1990, chewing had been mostly confined to the north-west mountains where the plant grows.

  The reason was money. Studies from 2001 estimated that khat earned about 2.5 million Yemeni rials per hectare, while fruit earned only 0.57 million.

  The cost was water. An estimated 40% of Yemen's water supply goes to irrigating khat, and production was reported to rise by 10% to 15% every year. Groundwater in the Sanaa basin is falling, and officials have proposed moving large portions of the city's population to the Red Sea coast. Khat is far thirstier than other crops, and it has played a major part in a famine in the country.

  The habit behind this demand is social and largely male. Men gather to chew while talking, smoking a hookah and drinking tea. Researchers estimate that 70-80% of Yemenis aged 16 to 50 chew at least occasionally.

  About 60-90% of Yemeni men and 35% of women chew every day. Together Yemenis spend an estimated 14.6 million man-hours a day chewing, and families spend about 17% of their income on it.

  In 2018, General Taher al-Aqili, chief of staff of the Yemeni Armed Forces, called khat "our whisky" and said it gave his men strength to fight. Reports indicate that child soldiers in Yemen have chewed it to stay alert on the battlefield.

  The government has tried to rein in the crop. A 2007 law restricted khat growing on agricultural flatlands and basins with high water stress. A 2005 sales tax law set the tax on khat at 20% of its retail price.

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• 7. Britain's Ban

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  On the 24th of June 2014, khat became illegal in the United Kingdom. The road to that day was long. Commentators, health professionals and community members had worried about use among immigrants from Somalia, Yemen and Ethiopia, and some Somali community organisations campaigned for a ban.

  Studies of mental health in these communities called for better research and suggested that the public debate showed signs of a moral panic. The Home Office commissioned successive studies. In 2005 it asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to consider khat's status.

  The research found that most users chewed moderately in quantity, frequency and session length, and that chewing was typically social. Only a small minority used it to excess. In January 2006 the Advisory Council recommended that khat stay legal for the time being.

  Politics pushed the other way. In 2008, the Conservative politician Sayeeda Warsi said a future Conservative government would ban khat. In 2009 the Home Office commissioned two more studies.

  During a parliamentary debate on the 11th of January 2012, the Conservative MP Mark Lancaster said khat imports stood at 10 tonnes every week. Then, on the 23rd of January 2013, the Advisory Council said there was "insufficient evidence" that khat caused health problems. It found "no evidence" of a direct link to serious or organised crime.

  On the 3rd of July 2013, Home Secretary Theresa May announced the ban, making khat a Class C substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Kenyan MPs appealed to Britain not to "condemn people" by banning it. In March 2014 the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said it would keep lobbying against the ban, after a report that recommended against it.

  On the 12th of May 2014, the House of Lords approved the order. An amendment asked for a 12-month review, a policing strategy, a health strategy and more work with Kenya to ease the economic effect. It was defeated by vote.

  By January 2015, the Bristol Post reported, most khat houses in Bristol had closed, pushing users to chew at home. Police there had first given a grace period, then issued three warnings and a caution. In September 2014 they had seized 24 bags of dried khat in Easton without making arrests.

  The Somali Resource Centre said the ban seemed to work, since the plant must be fresh to be useful and the import market had all but collapsed. A consultation in Glasgow in October 2014, run by the organisation Fast Forward, found some Somalis still using fresh and dried khat, and some turning to other substances.

  Channel 4 News reported that before the ban, 20 tonnes of khat reached Heathrow Airport daily, selling for £3 a bundle. After the ban, a bundle was reportedly selling for £30.

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• 8. Borders and Bans

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  In 1965, a World Health Organization expert committee welcomed a resolution confirming that khat abuse was a regional problem best controlled regionally. For that reason, khat was never scheduled under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. In 1980 the organization classed it as a drug of abuse that can cause mild to moderate psychological dependence, less than tobacco or alcohol, but not serious addiction.

  Countries have gone their own ways since. Djibouti and Somalia allow it. Kenya also allows it, though cathinone and cathine are Class C substances there. Morocco, China, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam ban it, and in Hong Kong traffickers face a penalty of up to HK$5 million as well as life imprisonment.

  In the United States, a 1993 rule by the Drug Enforcement Administration placed cathinone in Schedule I, which also banned any material containing it, khat included. Missouri bans the plant itself. Raids have often hit immigrants from countries where khat is legal, and cultural misunderstanding has sometimes been raised as an issue.

  Canada treats khat as a Schedule IV substance, with a maximum of ten years in prison for trafficking. In 2008 officials said it was the most common illegal drug smuggled through airports. Yet in 2012 the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld an absolute discharge for a young woman who brought 34 kilograms into the country in 2009.

  In Israel, Yemenite Jews and the Beta Israel chew what they call Gat, a practice named "lekhazen", sometimes in gatherings called "takhazina". Chewing the natural leaf is legal. In 2003 a pill of extracted cathinone called Hagigat went on sale in kiosks, and after several hospitalisations it was outlawed.

  European laws moved at different times. Sweden banned khat in 1989, Denmark in 1993 and Belgium in 2006. The Netherlands announced its ban on the 9th of January 2012, after a health minister had decided against one in 2008.

  Norwegian customs seized 10 metric tons in 2010, and in 2016 Oslo estimated that 50-70% of Somali immigrant men were habitual users. In 2017, customs officials in Frankfurt found 5815 kilograms. In August 2025, Greek officials in Athens seized a record 500 kilograms worth an estimated €1.5 million.

  Improved roads, off-road vehicles and air freight carried this perishable leaf into Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Italy and New Zealand. In the United States, fresh khat is sold in African and Middle Eastern markets in Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City.

  Some researchers have looked at the waste for fuel. Khat waste contains chemical groups, such as alkene groups and O-H bonds, that matter for biofuel, which could make it a future fuel in developing countries.

  In 2009, the University of Minnesota launched the Khat Research Program, led by Mustafa al'Absi and funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Its inaugural event took place in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, in December 2009, and its focus was the effects of khat on the brain and body.

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