Miraa is a dangerous drug because it has serious side effects. A drug is described as any substance (other than food) that, when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin, or dissolved under the tongue causes a physiological change in the body.
Miraa is therefore considered a drug, and a dangerous one; its consumption causes the body to change and react.
Miraa is known to cause long-term effects such as increased severity of psychological problems including depression, paranoia, anxiety, irritation, and more severe psychological problems.
In addition, difficulty sleeping, impotence, chronic constipation, inflammation of the mouth and other parts of the oral cavity, including oral cancer.
Miraa causes addiction among many youths and has led to cases of immorality and insecurity. Most of the people who engage in crime are miraa users and vendors; some even use the miraa selling points as hide outs to steal from people and sell other banned drugs.
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There are students who have dropped out of school to engage in the miraa business while others sneak miraa into school to prevent them from sleeping. This interferes with their memory and concentration.
Regular miraa users are also known to have coloured teeth and bad breath.
I know a few people who were using the drug, and right now they have no teeth. The teeth simply began to fall out, and now they cannot eat nyama choma!
Ms Mohammed is a receptionist
