BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia — Her life revolves around a psychotropic leaf.

Yeshmebet Asmamaw, 25, has made chewing the drug a ritual, repeated several times a day: She carefully lays papyrus grass on the floor of her home, brews coffee and burns fragrant frankincense to set the mood.

Then she pinches some khat leaves, plucked from a potent shrub native to this part of Africa, into a tight ball and places them in one side of her mouth.

“I love it!” she said, bringing her fingers to her lips with a smack.

She even chews on the job, on the khat farm where she picks the delicate, shiny leaves off the shrubs. Emerging from a day’s work, she looked slightly wild-eyed, the amphetaminelike effects of the stimulant showing on her face as the sounds of prayer echoed from an Orthodox Christian church close by.

Ethiopians have long chewed khat, but the practice tended to be limited to predominantly Muslim areas, where worshipers chew the leaves to help them pray for long periods, especially during the fasting times of Ramadan.