'No Turning Back': Teens Abuse HIV Drugs

ABC News' Jim Sciutto with two South African teenagers who are smoking the anti-retroviral drug Efavirenz, which is prescribed to treat HIV/AIDS. When crushed and smoked, the drug offers a cheap high with no medical benefit.

(ABC)

Drug Dealer: 'They Shouldn't Blame Me'

How ARV abuse began is uncertain. Taken as prescribed, Efavirenz can cause vivid dreams. Someone -- possibly an HIV patient experimenting -- discovered that smoking the drug greatly enhances those hallucinations.

Today, some of the illegal drugs come from HIV patients selling their own lifesaving medication for profit. Others are stolen from patients or pharmacies.

Pharmacies in the townships have banklike security. The drugs are kept behind vault doors, because they have an enormous black market value. Just one container of the ARVs is worth $60, and a whole shelf is worth $3,000.

Driving through the townships, a local AIDS health worker named Zola Shezi showed us the extent of the black market in ARVs. She saw drug dens everywhere; one she identified had children playing right outside.

"Just here, the man he owns the house, he built all these rooms … one, there's one room where his customers stay and crush and do things."

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The few police we saw did nothing.

In just three years, ARVs have grown from a niche drug abused by a small number of HIV patients into a widespread addiction, increasingly among young people.

Many ARV abusers are young students, and in a neighborhood like the one we visited you'll find dealers on almost every street, selling to students during school hours and just after.

In his house that doubles as a drug den, we met one of the dealers face-to-face. Dinda -- he gave us a false name to hide his identity -- said he earns many times what he could make, if he could find a job.

He acknowledged that the drugs are meant for people with HIV, but said "nobody can give me that money while I'm sitting at home; I have to go and do something for money."

Recounting a story that's not unusual in the area, he said he's the only one of eight siblings still alive. His siblings were all victims of HIV or gang violence, leaving him to take care of a large, extended family.

"I'm unemployed, four of these years I am not working, if I can stop this we can all suffer," he said. "So they shouldn't blame me for what I'm trying to make a living out of."