This paper is based on research that aims to ascertain the extent of the problem of substance abuse among people of Indian origin in South Africa. Its origins lie in the recent media reports about a drug known as “sugars” that is being increasingly used in the working class townships of Phoenix and Chatsworth, situated on the outskirts of Durban. Sugars is a mixture of heroin and poisonous chemicals that is used in the killing of rats, viz. Rattex. The purpose of the research was to explore the relationship between substance abuse and criminal behaviour. Data was gleaned from questionnaires, group discussions with scholars in high schools, discussions with individuals at a drug rehabilitation centre, the police and administrators of Anti-Drug Forums in Durban. The results of the study have been revealing and instructive, providing information on a perceived staggering increase in its spread and abuse among school going children. A range of data gathering exercises has produced material that supports media accounts of increasing levels of substance abuse. The paper is predicated on the notion that a sufficiently in-depth analysis of the problem is best understood against the background of historical issues linked to substance abuse internationally and to Indians locally. It ends with the advice that national ministries need to act with a desperate urgency, if they wish to deal with the problem of substance abuse effectively.
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