By Donstance Koroma
Many political pundits and analysis can indisputably state that President Julius Maada Bio’s “New Direction administration” ushered in KUSH, the new drug in town ravaging the lives of Sierra Leone’s tomorrow leaders.
Other schools of taught hold the view that the Sierra Leone’s People Party (SLPP) can’t govern without legitimizing the drug trade, addiction and abuses alongside, citing the late Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah administration when the drug cocaine found its way through districts and towns across Sierra Leone.
Records have it that, cocaine then enjoyed latitude of political and police protections as Kush is currently enjoying across the country.
Additionally, accusing fingers were pointing at a very senior official of the Tejan Kabbah government for the importation of cocaine and other drugs into the country.
Under the Bio government, a very senior official also stands accuse of the importation of the drug Kush.
With many conflict slash points envisage before, during and after the elections nationwide, this medium attempt to carefully take a look at the pros and cons of Kush as the country prepares for its fourth-post war elections.
It was during the tenure of the late Tejan Kabbah that addicted partakers of cocaine were referred to as “Junkie Boys,” a title that was also accorded to one of the Kabbah’s sons.
In this current administration, addicted partakers of kush are refer to as “Bend-Down-Low” due to their static dangling movement after their intakes of kush.
According to BBC Africa Eye revealed the young of Sierra Leone are suffering mental health problems, harming themselves and others and even taking their own lives.
Plant matter mixed with psychoactive chemicals, has become king on the streets, pushing out others more expensive illegal highs like tramadol.
The police are battling to win the war against the drug, Head of team, Sierra Leone Police, Transnational Organisation Crime Unit, Andrew Ronko said.
“It’s wide into the nook and cranny of Sierra Leone. It is not just the city tramadol is not even a threat now,” reports BBC Africa Eye.
BBC Africa Eye discovered desperate female kush addicts selling sex to get money to purchase the drug, while the male addicts searching through raw sewage to find metallic substances that they can sell to satisfy their kush habit.
The country’s only psychiatric hospital situated at the eastern of Freetown is feeling the hard impacts.
Last year, a new drug rehabilitation ward was opened and its beds are being filled by Kush patients.
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Public Relation Officer, Ibrahim Kargbo, as a former police officer, believes Kush cannot be tackled through law enforcement alone.
Kargbo disclosed that he is on a mission to raise awareness on the dangers of Kush and run sessions to help users kick the habit, which he disclosed is having some successes.
“If all of us can stand up together and say, yes, it is affecting our kids, I think that is better for all of us as the unrelenting march of Kush threatens to consume the young people of Sierra Leone”.
Research has identified elevated mood, relaxation, and altered perception, symptoms of psychosis, extreme anxiety, confusion, rapid heart rate, raised blood pressure, vomiting, kidney damage and seizures as side effects of the kush. Overdoes can cause fatal heart attack, medics cautioned.
Executive Director, Caritas Freetown, Fr. Peter Konteh said the use of Kush and other illicit drugs among the young people in Sierra Leone exposes the country, which is preparing for the general elections on June 24, to possible violence.
In his reflection on substance abuse, a major factor in the electoral violence, noting that the importation of the illicit drugs has increased during the country’s electioneering period, and that rogue politicians are sponsoring the in uptake of drug among unemployed youth.
“We have seen a sudden rise in the illegal drug known as Kush which is very cheap and readily available on the streets of Sierra Leone”, Fr. Peter Konteh. We also realize from our research that 90% of admissions into Sierra Leone’s psychiatric hospital are due to Kush of recent, but it affects our communities.
Research conducted by the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), described kush as a synthetic version of telerahydro cannabinal mixture of plant material sprayed with synthetic psychoactive ingredient in marijuana / weed. The drug comes in different colours and texture.
According to research, most Kush drug has some purple coloration and very dense buds. The drug, American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said is part of cannabis Genius indica family.
The following are some of the various types of kush-Afghan kush, Hindu kush, Green kush, Purple kush, OG kush and Bubba kush are classified among the popular kush strains of the cannabis- indica drug family.
Research has it that the drug is grown in the mountainous regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and some parts of India, existing in many different forms.
Head of Communications, Sierra Leone Police, Superintendent Brima Kamara asserted that kush is an illegal drug that he noted is seriously affecting young folks who take it because it is produced with the combination of strong and hard chemicals that affect the human brain.
He added that the Sierra Leone Police has conducted several raids to clamp down on peddlers of those hard drugs.
Despite robust efforts, there is little success in clamping down on the activities of the peddlers, noting they are on the increase.
Research carried out by the Forum Newspaper Sierra Leone (FNSL) observed that Kush peddlers in the capital and its environs are carry on the trade with little or no fear of police raids.
“I have nothing to worry about police raids, because at the end of the month, I have to prepare envelops for Barrack and Rose Road police divisions” a kush peddler at Kissy Shell Old Road, assured customers.
A situation that remains similar in most, if not all police stations and posts across the city, which has given rise to its importation and peddling.
Such an indictment should not be treated with a pinch of salt by the Sierra Leone Police Force that is generally regarded as a “Force for Good”.
Aiah Nabieu Mokuwah, Executive Director, Institute for Drug Control and Human Security (IDCHS) said Kush does not have much effect on the upcoming elections because the drug is less violent.
He continued that Kush is a central nervous system depressant or can be better refers to as a sleeping induce substance.
Highlighting the differences between Kush and tramadol, Mokuwah noted that Kush weakens the human system unlike tramadol that high per the human system that most times resulted to violence.
Regardless of that, IDCHS Director is of the strongest conviction that the drug Kush poses lot of challenges to the individuals, families, communities and the state in general.
According to Mokuwah, the drug Kush was discovered on a mountain in Afghanistan called India Kush Mountain, the drug was named after the mountain.
Kush, he said is another form of marijuana just like varieties of mangos with very high percent of hydro cannabinoid (HTC), packaged and traffic to Sierra Leone.
He disclosed that due to the long distance travelling of the drug the HTC component normally reduces.
“HTC means Tetraphydrocannabinnol, is a cannabinoid molecule in marijuana (cannabis) that long been recognized as the main psychoactive ingredient, that is, the substance that causes people who use marijuana to feel high”.
It just one of more than 500 different substances and 100 different cannabinoid molecules in marijuana.
Although, THC is the most recognized other important cannabinoid molecules that have received major interest is cannabinoid.
As a result, traffickers and big-time dealers of Kush added other chemicals to make it more “higher”, citing formalin, a chemical used to preserve dead bodies.
“This said chemical dried up the white blood cells and the celli bra pennial fulid, when the fluid is dry up in human causes mental depression” Aiah Nabieu Mokuwah.
He furthered identified insecticides as other chemical used. According to the drugs expert, he described insecticides as a slow poison to the human system that will eventually leads to death.
In his recommendation said,” I would like to see the government of Sierra Leone declares drug as a public health emergency in Sierra Leone”.
Mokuwah said he is also yearning to see a review of the National Drug Control Act 2008.
He is also of the strongest conviction that drug should be seen as a public health and not a criminal justice system while referring to manufacturers, traffickers and big-time dealers as the real criminals while the end users are just victims.
We cannot continue to victimize the victims, Aiah N. Mokuwah ended.
