Pregnant and Addicted
Each year around a thousand young women addicted to crystal methamphetamine, or tik, give birth to so-called tik babies in Cape Town. ‘I started smoking [heroine, dagga and tik] while I was 16 years old,’ said Meggan Adams from the Cape Flats while filling her glass pipe with more of the white tik crystals. She is six-and-a-half-months pregnant with her second child. ‘With my first child I was smoking five packets [of tik] a day ‘ one packet just wasn’t enough for me,’ Meggan said. ‘There were times, after I smoked, that I could feel the child being like hyperactive in my tummy.’ Meggan has been living on the streets of Cape Town since she was a child, and despite her pregnancy, prefers to sleep out on the street. According to her, she doesn’t like spending time at home and would rather roam around, begging for money to buy food. ‘I’m very worried about her on the streets, very worried,’ said Meggan’s mother, Amiena, who often comes to town to meet with her and to get some money from her to help support Meggan’s 5 year old son.
