After wreaking havoc among young people in Sierra Leone, the use of kush is beginning to spread to other West African countries. It is worrying governments and parents in Guinea, Liberia and now Senegal, where foreign traffickers have been arrested in recent days.
The authorities’ concern is based on recent discoveries about the composition of this new synthetic drug. According to some scientists, it contains dangerous chemical substances laced with human bone tissue.
It’s a chilling revelation that has since drawn public attention to the harmful effects of kush on the mental health of its users.
In Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in West Africa, many idle youth turn to the drug to kill boredom. From the slums to the upmarket streets of the capital, Freetown, where it first appeared about five years ago, users are known for their drowsiness and unsteady gait.
The latter are nicknamed “zombies,” or addicts who do not disrupt the community, as opposed to critical cases whose treatment can be complex at the country’s only psychiatric hospital: the University Psychiatric Hospital of Sierra Leone. Its mission is to wean drug addicts of the tendency after they are brought in by their families under difficult conditions.
But in March 2024, dozens of young addicts in Sierra Leone were killed by the drug, making its use a real public health problem, according to the Senegalese newspaper L’Observateur, which published an article on the subject last Wednesday.
The newspaper spoke to law enforcement officials who are waging a fierce battle against individuals trying to set up a ‘kush’ trafficking network in Senegal. Some of these traffickers, mostly from countries in the sub-region, have been arrested in recent days, the newspaper reports.
Given the threat to other countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Epidemiological Network on Drug Use (WENDU) recently met in Abuja, Nigeria, to validate data and address regional challenges in the area of drug abuse. The workshop, held from 23-25 April, reaffirmed the regional body’s commitment to supporting Sierra Leone in its emergency programme to combat drug abuse linked to the use of ‘kush’.
“While our focus today is on strengthening the capacity of our region as a whole to deal with drug-related problems, we are particularly attentive to the serious problems facing Sierra Leone. We are closely monitoring the situation and are committed to mobilising targeted support as part of our regional strategy,” stressed Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs at ECOWAS, which aims to promote an approach to the fight against drugs that will ensure a “healthier and safer” West African community.
ODL/ac/lb/as/APA