‘KUSH’: the crisis Sierra Leone can’t ignore
By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Sierra Leone is going through a very serious drug crisis, and it has been ongoing for a while now. The most recent data from the country’s only Psychiatric facility, the Kissy Psychiatric Hospital shows that over 1,700 patients were admitted in the facility just for Kush related effects in 2023. Patients admission numbers for general drug addiction effects have risen from just over 200 to over 2000 in the last four years, according to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sattie Kanneh.
Such is the scale of the problem Sierra Leone is dealing with, that it can no longer ignore it. These are only reported cases just from one hospital, Dr Kanneh insisted, during a hearing in parliament last month.
Authorities from the Burial team, say they are burying abandoned corpses every week suspected of dying of Kush. For a country that has gone through civil war, Ebola, mudslide and COVID-19, this problem feels like any of the preceding emergencies.
What is Kush?
“Kush” is a local name for a synthetic Cannabinoid kind of drug. In Sierra Leone several variations of this synthetic drug have been concocted using several experimental formulae. Some of the ingredients in the locally produced Kush include; Acetone, Methanol, Cannabis, Marshmallow leaves, human bones and Formaldehyde. In fact the demand for human bones is so serious that graves in the capital have been pillaged leading to the Freetown City Council expressing their dismay.
Chemicals like Formaldehyde, Methanol and Acetone are all imported into the country separately with dried Marshmallow leaves, and later the chemistry to produce the finished product is done in the country, ready for sale and distribution after.
The synthetic drug has had a devastating impact on the country’s youthful population with dozens arrested by law enforcement bodies or ordinary citizens and the lives of many more wasted.
What’s been done?
But Sierra Leone is not alone, neighboring Liberia is dealing with a similar crisis. In January this year, the newly elected President, Joseph Boakai declared it a national health emergency. Authorities in Sierra Leone have not done so yet, despite calls for similar action to be taken.
The crisis has sparked a national conversation about Kush as a drug and the consequences it is already having on young people. This week, government is planning to have a national town hall to discuss the crisis. Last month, Parliament had to summon officials from the Ministry of Health, Police, Social Welfare, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency among others, to clearly explain the problem and what have they been doing about it.
The revelations were shocking; from the lack of support to fight the menace to constraints with resources or any political direction to lead the fight against what seems to be a pandemic.
Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Mohamed Haj-Kella said during that Parliamentary hearing: “We need a political direction to fight this Kush”. His comment reflects the general lack of coordination in response to the crisis, as some have raised.
Executive Director of Social Linkages, Habib Tagore Kamara told Epic Radio that he is deeply disappointed with how weak government response to the current crisis has been. Tagore’s group works with addicts, to rehabilitate them and turn them to community advocates against the drug and other harmful substances.
“We are disappointed in the government, they have failed the young people. They have not shown any leadership at local or national level, in this fight. That is why communities are taking the law in their hands.”
Press Secretary to the President, Yusuf Kekehtoma Sandi said during a government press briefing on 20th March that the government is doing everything in its power to fight the disease.
“The President sees this Kush issue as a serious concern, because he knows this is a threat to the five big game changers,” he said.
Sandi said a rehabilitation center has been built to house up to 50 addicts at a time as a response to the growing number of Kush addicts. But despite this progress, the Ministry of Social Welfare has said it has a waiting list that is five times more than what the center can take.
“We have up to 300 young people on our list waiting to get into the center for rehabilitation, some of them brought by their parents. But we can’t take them all because the center can only admit 50,” Haj-Kella said.
Experts have warned about the potential this crisis could have on the government’s broader vision for the country, which is human capital development. The Executive Director of West Africa Drug Policy Network warned exactly about this in an article last year.
“If this trend of illicit drug-related activities in Sierra Leone is not immediately intercepted, it stands a chance to undermine the long-term impact of the country’s human capital development effort.”
A fresh debate is also developing on whether addicts should be treated as criminals or victims. In the coming months, the Attorney General will have a major say on this question, by shaping government’s legal response to this problem. Another layer to this debate is whether the government should focus on cutting the demand or cutting the supply of the synthetic drug. The Speaker of Parliament added his own voice to this debate last month, saying there should be no “sacred cows” in addressing the menace. He said people in the supply chain should be targeted.
But there are others in the government who believe this is all a plan to sabotage the government. The Minister of Youth, Mohamed Orman Bangura claimed that people are trying to make the government look bad, by paying people to smoke the drug. He posted this on his X account on 21 March:
“We have structures across the country responding to the menace. You see videos of victims paid to smoke and say negative things for social media attention. Condemn those incentivizing the act…”
Photo of dried Kush leaves seized by Police
Credit:Sierra Views
Meanwhile Police raids have increased at major hotspots, with victims and alleged dealers arrested, these include Police officers who have already been dismissed from the force. A few of them have even been paraded in videos with Police explaining the circumstances surrounding their arrest.
Misinformation through the crisis
As the crisis ravages on, there is so much misinformations and unproven claims that have been made and generally accepted by many, given the scale of the crisis at hand.
In march this year, 32 people were buried in a mass grave, Head of the Burial Team, Sinneh Koroma claimed that they all died of the effects of Kush. Sinneh is a technician at the country’s biggest mortuary, at Connaught Hospital. He leads a team that recovers abandoned corpses on the streets of the capital and coordinates their burial with the Ministry of Health. Despite his claims that the people died of Kush, no autopsy was done for sure to confirm this claim.
A popular unproven claim which many have come to believe is that victims develop sore as a result of the chemicals in Kush. While a lot of addicts that have been smoking Kush continuously have had big sore on their limbs and other parts of their body, no scientific study has been done to prove that claim, despite how obvious it may be. However, some addicts have confessed about its impact on their body, as seen in this video, where an addict claims that he has lost most of his front teeth as a result of smoking the substance.
A lot of abandoned corpses found have been hastily classified as death from Kush, especially on social media. Those claims are made without any evidence like an autopsy. Accusations of who is involved in the trade has also gone viral with blogs posting the faces of different people claiming they are part of the cartel, often with no evidence presented to back the claims up.
In communities where they have taken the law into their own hands by rounding up victims, there has been a major criticism of the actions they take with addicts. Communities are rounding up victims, shaving and washing them whilst claiming it’s a way to their rehabilitation. There is no scientific evidence to support those actions.
What now?
There is no telling what could happen next, however the campaign against Kush has gathered steam on social media and on the ground. But the lack of central leadership means mob justice is on the rise against addicts and alleged dealers across several communities. The question for many is, how bad does this Kush crisis have to get, before it gets better?
