By Alusine Fullah

Honestly, the supply side is in the offices, the big business tycoons. The suppliers wear three-piece suits; they are in big offices and ride big cars. They don’t even see the products. They are the ones who protect the retailers. We need the Kings and Queens of the business to be arrested. The writer is on the conviction that, eradicating Kush in Sierra Leone, the government needs to focus more on the importers and the suppliers than the smokers. If there is severe a scarcity of Kush, how can the smokers smoke it. Really impossible! So the first target is to target the big guys who are in the business of supply/ importation.

Kush – a cheap new illegal drug is ravaging communities in Sierra Leone. Medical staff in the capital Freetown says that 90% of the male admissions to the central psychiatric ward are due to Kush use. Sierra Leone, like many other African countries is breathing on the destructive consequences of drug abuse, with one particular drug called KUSH. As a journalist, on the early hours on Monday, 18^th March 2024 to get firsthand information, I visited many places around the capital to actually see and feel how this menace (Kush) is destroying our young generation, the youth. COVID 19 disease is gone, the new disease is Kush.

Their lives are mired in poverty and despair. “Kush” will offer them relief they hope, but the nirvana is fleeting and carries a grim price. The recently emerged drug is making terrible inroads among the young in Sierra Leone. On the edge of a rubbish tip in the capital Freetown, Mohamed (name changed), 25-year-old garbage picker, smoked a joint laced with ‘Kush’. For about an hour, he said, he would “meditate high meditation,” sleep, wake up and eat. And then, a short time later, do it all over again. “We smoke it the whole day,” he said. “I spend a lot of money on it every day — around 200 Leones,” or around $10: a small fortune in a country with average per capita income of under $500 a year. Nearby, Mohamed’s companions were crammed into a shack shrouded in Kush smoke, in the heart of a slum where children played among pigs and detritus.

The synthetically made drug surfaced half a dozen years ago, although its composition is sketchy. Manufactured and distributed by criminal gangs, “the drug is an amalgamation of the various chemicals and plants that mimic the natural (cannabinoid) THC found in cannabis,” said Abdul Sheku Kargbo, head of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

The active ingredient’s concentration can be “exponentially increased,” ratcheting up potency, he said. “Young people are dying,” said Ibrahim Hassan Koroma, founder of an NGO called the Mental Watch Advocacy Network. “We need a speedy and refocused strategy to see how young people are taking from this drug intake. But at the moment it is quite alarming,” he said.

Kush users seem to be everywhere in Freetown, from the slums to well-heeled areas, sitting slumped with their heads lolling and sometimes sleeping standing up. Kadiatu, 22, is among those who became hooked on the drug. “Sometimes when I wake up from sleep without smoking, my body and joints ache,” she said. “After I smoke two, three (joints), I feel okay, I feel alright, my meditation changes, my mood becomes cool. After smoking I eat a lot,” she said. To pay for her hits, she resorts to sex work. She bore scars from knife attacks and, she admitted, psychic wounds as well. “I used to be a cheerful woman with so many fashion dresses,” she said. “Look at the hair on my head — I don’t plait my hair (anymore).”

For more investigations, the writer took a work to ‘Bon Suffer’

(a notorious place for Kush somkers) at Abacha Street where maybe a hundred Kush users were inside, discreetly smoking joints. In an alleyway off Bon Suffer of Freetown, many Kush smokers are studiously hammering away at the chain of abject smoking.  According to them, the root causes of their addiction are poverty and neglect. Indeed, there is a profound feeling and smell of public dissatisfaction about this menace and the effects hanging like a dark cloud over the lives of the smokers which need to be addressed NOW. Based on the various opinions gathered, Sierra Leonean youths are smoking Kush to the core.

Sierra Leone’s sole psychiatric hospital, a renovated facility from the British colonial era, is swamped/ crammed with young addicts brought in by families desperate for help.

Sixty percent of the hospital’s admissions are Kush-related, said Jusu Mattia, acting medical superintendent and resident psychiatrist. In the substance abuse unit, dozens of patients lay on beds. The hospital “receives patients that are at the extreme end — they are intoxicated, or they are psychotic,” he said. Care amounts to isolation treatment lasting between three to six weeks supported by anti-psychotic drugs to help wean patients off their addiction. They can have psychotherapy and join socializing activities such as sport and sewing. Michael Mannah, a 22-year-old student, said his life had been transformed after years on Kush.

Dr. Joseph Wilson, a senior doctor at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital highlighted the health impact of Kush. He said: “Kush abuse is associated with severe health consequences. Users frequently experience physical and mental deterioration, with some exhibiting signs of recklessness and disregard for personal hygiene. Users also experience weight loss, malnutrition, weakened immune system, and impaired cognitive function…”

A renowned BBC reporter, Umaru Fofona wrote: “The situation is particularly worrisome on university and college campuses, where drug use has notably increased, impacting even upper-class professionals. This pervasive drug abuse threatens the well-being of Sierra Leonean’s future generation. Depression is real! Come forward and discuss it with someone you trust. In fact mental health should be declared an emergency in Sierra Leone and dealt with more seriously to save our young generation-the majority of the population…”

Consequentially, the Kush’s addictive nature fuels criminal activities, leads to deteriorating health conditions, and robs the nation’s youth of a promising future. To combat this menace, the government MUST take SWIFT ACTION to curb the importation, production and distribution of Kush. Comprehensive measures encompassing prevention treatment, and rehabilitation should be implemented, alongside public awareness campaigns and the establishment of support networks. By addressing the root causes of drug (Kush) abuse and providing the necessary resources for recovery.

32 Kush victims were buried few days ago! By look of things, it is evident that this is not a one man battle. This fight requires a multi-faceted approach that involves collaboration between government agencies, law enforcement, healthcare professionals, educators and community organizations. I still have the belief that the Government of Sierra Leone should target the importers/ suppliers. If it not imported, how can they have access to? If they don’t access to they won’t smoke it!!