The Rise Of ‘Zombie Drug Epidemic’ In Sierre Leone (image-pixabay)
A dangerous trend of drug use is now engulfing the youth of West Africa. After the end of Covid pandemic, there has been a sudden rise in the usage of this intoxicant substance among youths of Sierre Leone.
Kush is a mysterious new zombie drug that’s ravaging Sierra Leone – an epidemic described as the worst in Africa. A shocking twist has been now reported recently making it an even more a severe threat which could result in the destabilisation of the entire nation.
The human killing slow poison ‘kush’ contains opioids, cannabis, disinfectant and, now the youth has discovered one more unfathomable ingredient, says The Telegraph. The impact of Africa’s worst drug epidemic deepens as the rise of use of human remains in production of a drug substance (Kush) in Sierra Leone was reported on January 4.
It being reported that, to be precise, bones are the target of drug mafia, which are extracted from the gravesites as the newest ingredient to drugs.
The break-in of the graves in one of the main cemeteries in Free Town is about taking the bones and making Kush, which, ultimately has led the neighbors to form groups referred to as the friends of the dead to stop the grave robbers.
“Even the dead aren’t safe here anymore from the Kush crisis”, said one member of the community member.
The drug is mixed with a cocktail of other chemicals and dried leaves to produce the drug that is turning the users mainly the young into zombies. “It’s an ever-changing phenomenon and the ingredients keeps on changing with the recent addition being human bone which has Sulphur in it that has the potential to give the high feeling when inhaled at high concentrations as it goes directly to the brain”, said DR Jusu Mattia from the lone mental hospital in Sierra Leone.
This substance is so addictive in nature such that the users become hooked after a single hit later they find themselves completely trapped in the maze of self-destruction.
The Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital in Freetown says it has been overwhelmed with addicts in recent years. This substance is capable of fueling serious psychiatric issues. As per the report of Telegraph, the drug can also prove fatal.
There is no official data available for deaths to the drug, but health experts estimate around a dozen kush users die weekly in Sierra Leone, with their bodies often recovered from the streets and slums.
The most striking part is its spread across West Africa and a wave has now started reaching to the urban areas of Liberia and Guinea.
Sierra Leone’s Kambia district, which borders with Guinea, serves as a notable hotspot for the trafficking of drugs and has now become a key point of focus for local police.
In the mounting drug epidemic scenario, a handful organisation which are now present in the regions, providing short-term rehabilitation and integration programme is not enough to handle the crisis and hence a much stronger and effective plan b should be implemented at the earliest before the drowning of the youth in the ‘slow poison’.
