As the polydrug kush -- also known as K2 -- increasingly threatens the public health of young Sierra Leoneans, religious and development leaders want the government to take the crisis more seriously.
Scores of young people in Sierra Leone have become addicted to kush, a drug that threatens the lives of its users and others in their communities.
The local government in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, said they buried 32 young people earlier this month, most of whom died from kush-related effects.
The growing problem of kush -- which is also known as K2 -- has led the government of the West African nation to convene a national conference, despite citizens' calls to go a step further and declare a public emergency.
At the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital, previously known as Kissy Hospital, many patients admitted to being kush users or addicts. One identifies herself as Mosquito Rambo.
"I'm a prostitute. After going out with different men, any money I make I purchase a couple of kush, smoke it for the day so that I can be joyful and feel fine," she told DW.
Escapism from unemployment, poverty or other traumas is a big draw for the drug.
But its users are well aware of its dangers to their prospects. Estimates vary, but thousands have been hospitalized, and kush-related causes kill scores of people every week in Sierra Leone.
"Kush puts our lives backwards; young men are always behind," said Abass Kamara, who added that he used to smoke two joints a day. "Now it's one a day, so I will be able to abandon it. But you cannot just do so from one moment to another."
Common among kush users are the aches and pains that follow the high, and another young woman, who calls herself Sarah, said she would be happy if kush were to disappear.
"That the government plans to eliminate kush we are happy, because sore feet, swollen feet and robbery would stop. So we would go back to normal life," Sarah told DW.
What is kush?
The exact ingredients that go into kush are not universal or even known. It is a synthetic drug, or polydrug, that combines elements. Similar types of of highly-addictive drugs known as nyoape and mandrax are found in southern Africa.
Currently, kush usage has been mostly recorded in the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
By most accounts, it is a marijuana-based conconction which may include anything from fentanyl, tramadol or formalin, a substanstance used to embalm corpses, which seem to make kush extremely addictive. Most users smoke the drug, and joints can be shared.
What is known, however, is that drug is extremely cheap -- even in areas where there is little disposable income. For the price of a pack of chewing gum, users can get a short high.
But mental health experts say kush intake can lead to permanent brain damage and suicidal actions. And according to Sierra Leonean officials, in 2023, cases of drug abuse rose from 2% to 40% over a two-year period.
Grave robberies
Sierra Leone's Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Kenyeh Barlay, told DW that local investigations have found that kush is the "cheapest drug on the market."
The formalin found in the drug is thought to have been obtained from exhuming bodies from graveyards and crushing the bones into a powder form.
Freetown's municipal authorities earlier this month said they would deploy overnight police patrols to protect cemeteries following a spate of grave robberies involving the removal of bones from dead bodies.
This is one of the resdons why Solomon Moses Sogbandi, director of Amnesty International in Sierra Leone, wants the drug kingpins to be stopped.
"Not much is done about the drug barons, who are financiers of those bringing the drugs or those manufacturing the drugs within the country," Sogbandi told DW.
"If the government should target the drug barons, to ensure that they cut off the supply route, I think the issue of intake will be really reduced, and we can see how we can manage those that are already affected."
Calls for stronger government response
In response to the growing kush problem -- which is especially prevalent in urban areas -- Sierra Leone's government in February established a rehabilitation center for victims of drug abuse and set up a ministerial task force.
The vice chairman of Sierra Leone's Human Rights Commission, Victor Idrissa Lansana, told DW that the government should have declared an emergency.
"With the public emergency in place, we would have increased awareness, get young people to understand the dangers of kush and how they could avoid it," Lansana told DW.
"We don't have to wait until many more lives are lost to kush. As we have said, it's about the right to life, the right to health and the right to education. We have to intervene as a country, co-ordinately, so as to address this issue of kush once and for all."
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Lansana is also not the only voice calling for this measure.
Crushing the kush addiction
Religious leaders like Father Peter Conteh, who heads the humanitarian aid organization Caritas Freetown, suggested that the same approach used during the COVID and Ebola health crises could be transferred to the fight against kush.
"Collaboration between religious leaders and the health sector was instrumental in managing the spread of COVID-19," Conteh told DW.
"This same collaboration can be applied in the fight against kush, with the religious leaders working hand-in-hand with the health professionals to provide education, intervention and support to those struggling with substance abuse."
Sierra Leone's neighbors, Guinea and Liberia, are also battling to contain an increase in the consumption of kush.
Guinean authorities said that more than ten young men have died after taking the substance. Many others are undergoing medical treatments due to kush side effects.
In Liberia, President Joseph Boakai declared drug abuse a public health emergency and announced a steering committee to tackle the "existential threat" during his first state of the nation address in January.
This article has been adapted by Cai Nebe from a radio report that was broadcast on DW's daily podcast AfricaLink
