A new drug is wreaking havoc across Sierra Leone, turning many of its youngsters into “zombies” and some of these drugs are made from human bone fragments.
“Kush” is made from a mixture
of herbs, toxic chemicals, and even human bones. The drug, which costs just 20p
a joint, is proving hugely popular for young people in Sierra Leone.
Addicts say it ”takes you to
another world, one where you don’t know yourself”.
It’s technically illegal in
Sierra Leone, but is bought and sold openly on the streets of Freetown.
The exact ingredients of kush
are a mystery, and vary from batch to batch. Opioids such as fentanyl are
frequently found in joints, as well as a mixture of herbs and ground-up human
bone.
The bones, according to one
medical expert, contain traces of sulphur which can enhance the drug’s effect.
Dealers have broken into “thousands” of graves to steal skeletons to use as an
ingredient, locals say.
One victim, 25-year-old Abu
Bakhar, abandoned his hopes of a career in music because kush reduced him to a
virtual zombie.
“Because of drugs I did not
concentrate on music,” he told Channel 4 News. “Because of drugs I did not
concentrate on studies. Because of drugs I did not concentrate on writing.
Because of drugs I did not concentrate on anything.”
Like many kush addicts, he’s
lost his home and now lives on a landfill site on the outskirts of Sierra
Leone’s capital, Freetown. Over a thousand other people reportedly live on the
rubbish dump, combing it for anything of value that they can sell in order to
buy more kush.
Alhaji, another kush victim,
says that he was addicted after being given just one joint of the mysterious
new zombie drug.
He said: “I went to the ghetto
to buy another one and smoke it. I said ‘This is so sweet, can I get more?‘ and
that’s how I became an addict.”
He says he’s trying to quit it,
and is praying for help.
He was planning to enrol in
medical college, but kush has ended his dream and turned him into someone he
doesn’t recognise.
Amara Kallon, 21, told the
Daily Telegraph: “I used to smoke a couple of slings of marijuana a day but
after I was introduced to kush by friends, I never turned back. I sold my
clothes and books to satisfy my addiction. I started stealing household items,
phones, pots and dishes to buy drugs.”
Use of the drug is now
dangerously widespread among Sierra Leone’s youth, says doctor Jusu Mattia.
“You go along any streets you
see a lot of young men sleeping on the streets,” he said.
The country’s next generation
of doctors, lawyers and architects have been reduced to homeless drug addicts,
picking over a rubbish tip to scrape a living. The rapid spread of kush
addiction threatens to “destabilise” the country altogether.
Estimates suggest more than
1million people from Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia and Guinea are now
addicted to kush.
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