An emerging drug market

IN THE early morning at a bar in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, electronic beats pump from a DJ on a stage. Shielded from the autumn rains under tarpaulins, a substantial crowd, mostly of young Kenyans but with several European and American expats, dances. Outside the women’s toilets, attendants turn their eyes away—in exchange for a tip—as groups of young people go in together and then wander out, wiping their noses.

The drug scene is not entirely new to Nairobi. “There has been cocaine here since I was 14 years old,” says one young Kenyan woman, who works for an e-commerce firm and is now 26. But whereas in the geriatric West recreational drug use is falling and many night clubs are closing, in Africa’s capitals it appears to be growing, both among the new middle class and the poor. Drug-use surveys are rare in Africa, but governments are worried.