Is the Government Taking the Menace and Presence of Illicit Drugs in Sierra Leone Seriously Enough?
By Edward Dictionary Caulker
When I listened to Melvin Mansaray and James Fortune on the Brutally Frank Show interviewing James Kanyako, a journalist and anti-drug advocate, alongside Ibrahim Samuel Dugba, the Director of Drug Prevention, Education, and Training at the NDLEA I felt the weight of Sierra Leone’s reality. The tone of their voices, the depth of their worries, and the desperation in their words reflected a nation at war with itself a war against drugs that is slowly devouring its youth, its hope, and its future.
On April 4th, 2024, President Julius Maada Bio, during his National Address, declared:
“It is my solemn duty as your President, acting on the powers conferred on me by the Constitution, to DECLARE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY ON DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE. With this National Emergency, we shall broaden the scope of the Government Task Force’s work and adopt a multifaceted approach to addressing the increasing kush epidemic. The deterioration and alarming mortality of our young people due to the addictive use of kush is no longer acceptable. AS A GOVERNMENT, WE SAY, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. AS A NATION, WE SAY, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
Those were powerful words presidential, reassuring, and necessary. But one year later, the nation must ask: What you said versus what we see is the government treating this as a true national emergency or a political sideshow?
The government outlined a Five-Part Strategy for a drug-free Sierra Leone focusing on prevention, care and treatment, social services support, law enforcement, and community engagement. On paper, it reads like a comprehensive national plan. In practice, however, implementation has been painfully slow, fragmented, and underfunded.
Sierra Leone’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has repeatedly lamented that it lacks the resources, logistics, and personnel needed to enforce its mandate. Without proper funding, even the best strategies remain rhetoric.
Meanwhile, the country’s human capital its youth is being wiped out. The Mayor of Freetown recently revealed that the city collected over 220 corpses from the streets, with a significant number linked to drug-related deaths. Those numbers are not just statistics they are young lives lost, families broken, and dreams buried.
Sierra Leone’s drug problem has now drawn international attention. Major networks like Sky News have aired disturbing footage of young men hallucinating and losing control in the streets due to kush, a synthetic drug that has ravaged communities.
Foreign media describe Sierra Leone as a nation “on the edge of a drug epidemic,” while analysts warn that the country risks becoming a transit hub for narcotics moving from Latin America to Europe. The world sees the reality we are too ashamed or afraid to confront.
Yet, even amid this visible crisis, the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Sengepoh Thomas, recently remarked that:
“The level at which we are propagating Sierra Leone as a drug nation is not like that.”
His statement, now viral, has drawn outrage and rightly so. Downplaying a crisis does not solve it. Denial only deepens decay.
Hard Facts, Harder Questions
The evidence of a worsening crisis is undeniable:
School dropouts due to addiction are increasing.
Rehabilitation centres remain grossly inadequate.
Drug-related deaths are being reported almost weekly.
Trafficking scandals are staining the nation’s image abroad.
In one high-profile case, Sierra Leone recalled its ambassador to Guinea after seven suitcases containing suspected cocaine were discovered in an embassy vehicle along with $2,000 in cash.
In another, Jos Leijdekkers, one of Europe’s most wanted drug lords, allegedly lived in Sierra Leone for months, shielded from arrest. The government’s delayed and defensive response to these allegations has only heightened international suspicion that Sierra Leone is becoming a haven for transnational drug cartels.
These incidents aren’t mere coincidences. They point to systemic weaknesses corruption, porous borders, and lack of accountability that criminal networks exploit with ease.
Every addict on the streets of Freetown, Kenema, Bo, or Makeni is a reminder of leadership’s slow response. Every overdose is a silent indictment. Every parent who buries a son or daughter lost to kush carries a grief that policies cannot soothe.
We can no longer afford selective empathy or political posturing. The drug war is not about opposition or ruling party it’s about survival. A generation is slipping through the cracks while leaders trade rhetoric for results.
The government must be commended for at least acknowledging the problem something previous administrations failed to do publicly. But acknowledgement is not enough. The political will to follow words with measurable action must now be proven.
This means:
Fully funding the NDLEA and decentralizing its operations.
Establishing functional rehabilitation centres in every district.
Launching massive community awareness campaigns that involve religious leaders, educators, and local councils.
Taking a zero-tolerance stance on officials implicated in drug trafficking regardless of status or connection.
Until that happens, the declaration of a national emergency remains just that a declaration.
The Speaker may deny it. The government may defend itself. But the truth is visible to every Sierra Leonean who walks past a street corner where a young man burns his future for a puff of Kush.
The world is watching. History is recording. And posterity will ask:
When the nation was drowning in drugs, who stood for the truth, and who stood by in silence?
Sierra Leone is not yet lost but we are losing too many too fast. The time for denial is over. The time for decisive action is now.
