On the topic of chewing qat

One of our agents in the field visited Yemen recently, and offered this report back to his compatriots in the homeland:

While I was in Sana'a, I did what pretty much every traveler is expected to do: I had a qat-chewing session with the locals.

The Yemenis ball their qat into a golf-ball-sized wad in their mouths, and keep it there for hours, refreshing it as they go. This is unlike the common African technique of chewing and swallowing the small, green leaves. A good-sized ball will cause your cheek (left for men, right for women) to bulge, and the only aftereffect I noticed was soreness from having my cheek stretched out for that long.

Qat is illegal in the US (in fact, they won't even offer visas to Yemenis who have chewed it within the last 3 years), but really, the effect isn't what's damaging. The active ingredient, cathinone, is only present in the leaf for 3 days, and its effects were extremely mild. Like caffeine, without the jitters. To give you some analogous experience, take 5mg of some generic amphetamine and chew on some clover.

Unfortunately, the real problem is the damage it does to the land and economy of Yemen. The UN estimated that almost 1600 working hours per person per year are lost to qat chewing. (My session lasted 8 hours; most chewers leave work at lunch to score some at the qat markets, and just don't come back to work.) Some 80% of men and 40% of women (plus 15% of kids 12 and under) chew qat, and many spend as much as half their income (which averages less than $1/day) acquiring it. It also uses 2/3 of the country's irrigation, and 90% of new well water is used to grow it.

When asked about why purported stimulant (caffeine-like) effects would cause a slowdown in work, his response:

It's a combination of things. First, you're at 7000ft, in the desert, where the high temperature is between 90 and 110, so going outside again isn't particularly appetizing. They also have this cool living room-like place called a mafraj, which is on the 3rd floor or higher, with fitted cushions all around the outside, so they can sit and chat with one another while they chew. It's a very social drug. Also, qat is a long, slow buildup, and causes lots of people to be relaxed. I didn't feel particularly lazy, but some people apparently do feel mentally stimulated, while not being particularly interested in moving other parts of their body. (Chewers claim that qat makes them better in bed, though that is notably disputed by their lovers.)

Some chewers, particularly taxi drivers, will chew while working, but most just disappear for 3 hours or more each day.

[T]he place where I chewed was a business where the boss had actually scored for the workers. It was a fairly common social activity for them. And they joked that their wives don't trust them anymore when they say they're staying late at work. ;)