Is it just me or is the appeal here: "Look! Poor people are having unapproved fun! Shame and Horror!" and assurances that they will suffer for it.
Wheras we have publications like this to protect us from going so dangerously astray.
This is not the kind of drug people do for fun. This is the kind that is done to make you forget that you exist while it's active. From the article:
> "We aren’t worried about it,” they say. Ultimately, they claim, they have nothing to lose. "Bombé helps us forget everything. In the West, they have bank accounts, I have nothing. With bombé everything is easier.”
This isn't weed, or LSD, or a "fun" drug. This is the kind of thing that puts you into a stupor so you don't think.
More like heroin, perhaps.
I would caution about taking everything this article says at entirely face value - you as a reporter could probably get a similar quote about marijuana in Africa as well.
I'm not saying that's how it is, I'm just saying that it's plausible that they know it's harmful without knowing exactly what it is.
"I drank something from your poison collection, but I don't know what." "Oh no! You're in grave danger." "How do you know, if I don't know what it was?"
Best of luck.
And no, "poor people" being out of it, sometimes even not eating, for days on end, isn't exactly good for them, even if chosen voluntarily. Maybe especially if chosen voluntarily.