Said Hamiz has been using for nearly 10 years, after a friend from Greece introduced him to it. He was working steadily in the soap industry, but slowly stopped showing up for work as the addiction took hold.
Here, he smokes heroin using a piece of heated aluminum foil to liquify it, then inhaling the vapor/steam created.
Heroin Port
In the 1990s, international drug smuggling routes began moving heroin from Afghanistan through East Africa, exploiting poorly policed coastlines on the route to the U.S. and Europe.
Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago off Tanzania, became one of the unintended waypoints. Remote beaches and isolated inlets make it ideal for traffickers, and devastating for locals. The dirt-cheap narcotics have leaked into the impoverished population, where 40% of its citizens live well below the poverty line. With no real education on the distinctive perils of each drug, users here speak of trying heroin for the first time, assuming its potency was to be the same mild high of marijuana, often with ruinous results.
During Ramadan, in this devout Muslim society, users conceal their struggle, hiding behind doors, in alleyways, and away from prying eyes to preserve a semblance of family honor.
Rock form heroin as purchased in Zanzibar
Ali Rajabu, 36 years old, prefers to snort the drug. When he started using, he was with good friends. He thought they were going outside to smoke cigarettes, but they instead handed him a pipe with unga (heroin).
Ali is wearing the traditional Kanzu that men wear before praying at the mosque. He wears it to pay respect during Ramadhan, but he has not fasted, even though it is a requirement for Muslims.
Mohammed Sayed (left), 45, has been smoking heroin for nearly 15 years. His best friend Haji (right) introduced him to it, which caused a rift between them after Mohammed became addicted.
Haji Said is a 40 year old farmer, who started smoking heroin in 1985. He smokes in rolled paper/emptied cigarette casing, inhaling the vapors it creates.
Addicts chew or smoke marijuana leaves throughout the day to help engage their appetites, which wanes because of the prolonged heroin use.
Heroin users are often typified by being "on the nod". The nod is a catatonic state where users lose concentration of their immediate surroundings and are in a state reminiscent of sleep, though aware.
Photographed here is "Kudemba" a famous dope house on the island.