Story by Rfi, Radio France Internationale, Paris
A cheap synthetic drug known as kush is ravaging West Africa and its epicentre is Sierra Leone. The government has declared kush a public health emergency, but poverty and trauma are slowing efforts by communities to help unhook young people from its sometimes deadly hold.
At 20, Ousmane’s future should be unfolding. Instead, he spends his days at a drug point in Grey Bush – a ghetto in the capital Freetown – hunting for money for his next dose of kush.
Kush first appeared in Sierra Leone in the early 2020s and quickly spread across Liberia, Guinea, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. The report said kush is likely behind thousands of deaths in West Africa.
Cheap to produce and highly addictive, the Sierra Leonean government declared kush a public health emergency in April 2024, but the drug keeps spreading – overwhelming families, police and the fragile healthcare system.
Its hold goes beyond physical craving. “If I don’t smoke for two or three hours,” Ousmane said, “my bones hurt, I can’t sit, I can’t stand. But if I smoke, I get energy to hustle and then all I want is another dose.”
The young men describe a cycle of hunger, addiction and poverty. “We didn’t ask for this drug,” Ousmane adds. “We were just smoking marijuana. Then they came into the ghetto and said: ‘Try this, it’s better.’ So we tried it just once, and now we’re trapped.”
“We talk to them, give them encouragement, share what food we can. This community used to have bright students, now our youth is washing away. Businesses are closing. We’d like to do more, but it’s all we can do.”
Nearby, Souleymane cares for a man with kush-induced lesions. He shows a photo of an open wound exposing the young man’s bones. “That’s from jagaban – the stronger kind of kush. They can’t even walk,” the careworker says.
“Some people say we’re crazy for helping, that we must be users too,” said Ali, another volunteer. “But these are our brothers. We can’t pretend they don’t exist.”
‘Drug is everywhere’
The Global Initiative report said kush is part of a well-organised supply chain. Chemicals, often ordered from China or Europe on sites like Alibaba, are smuggled into Sierra Leone hidden in food containers or sent by courier.
Local “cooks” prepare the drug, which is sold at hundreds of “cartels”.
“We make kush from marshmallow leaves, add products that come through the port. Some make it milder, some stronger,” said Michael, who runs a kush point near an abandoned construction site at Funti fishing port.
“We have problems with police, sometimes we pay them off, sometimes we run, sometimes they take our drugs.”
Despite police raids, the trade not only survives but spreads.
“The drug is everywhere, even in the police and army… soldiers, students, teachers, they’re all using it,” said Isata Bridget Kallon, one of Sierra Leone’s few social workers focusing on addiction.
“Kush is destroying everything we rebuilt after the war.”
The country still bears the scars of its 10-year civil war. Average annual income was just €423 in 2022, said the World Bank, and its 8.4 million population faces high prices and mass unemployment.
Unless young people find better opportunities the fight against kush will be lost, Bangoura warns.
“After rehab, their bodies are clean. But then what? Many have no home so they go back on the streets. And they relapse. That’s the problem.”
This article was based on an audio report in French by Liza Fabbian, adapted by Alison Hird.
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