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.
