Qat: How It Affects Yemen.

Baghdad Without a Map, a novel by Tony Horwitz, vividly describes Tony’s many adventures in the Middle East. The usage of “qat”, a very popular drug used in Yemen, is very common among many men and women. “All days in Yemen we chew qat” (Mansour, 20). I find it amazing how certain places allow specific drugs while others certainly do not. An example of this is that Yemen allows qat, a drug which closely resembles marijuana, while America does not permit any drugs to be legal, unless it is for medial reasons. What puzzles me, is that the people of Yemen, especially the government officials, are allowed to be under the influence of qat at any given time. How can people make legitimate decisions when they are not fully aware of their surroundings when under the influence? “It [qat] gives you ideas all over the world” (21). It seems like qat produces clever ideas in ones brain, but not realistic or good ideas. It is evident that qat is the main focus on everyday life in Yemen, and people base their ideas and ways of life on it too, resulting in a land extremely different from America.
Two of the few most known characteristics of the Yemeni society is the amount of weapons and the major usage of qat (19). It is evident that the Yemeni people do not see drugs the way we Americans do. Yemeni people drive with qat, eat with qat, and some even claim that “chewing every day since the age of fifteen” (22) does not make you an addict. If somebody in America has been basing their everyday life around drugs for decades, they would probably be in either rehab or jail. I believe the legal usage of qat in Yemen largely reflects on the people’s ways of life and their surroundings. If qat were not permitted, Yemen would probably be a much more safe and put-together environment to live in. -a.v.