A brand new drug is wreaking havoc throughout Sierra Leone, turning lots of its kids into “zombies” and a few of these medication are comprised of human bone fragments.
“Kush” is comprised of a combination of herbs, poisonous chemical substances, and even human bones. The drug, which prices simply 20p a joint, is proving vastly well-liked for younger individuals in Sierra Leone.
Addicts say it ”takes you to a different world, one the place you don’t know your self”.
It’s technically unlawful in Sierra Leone, however is purchased and offered overtly on the streets of Freetown.
The precise substances of kush are a thriller, and fluctuate from batch to batch. Opioids akin to fentanyl are steadily present in joints, in addition to a combination of herbs and ground-up human bone.
The bones, in accordance with one medical knowledgeable, comprise traces of sulphur which might improve the drug’s impact. Sellers have damaged into “hundreds” of graves to steal skeletons to make use of as an ingredient, locals say.
One sufferer, 25-year-old Abu Bakhar, deserted his hopes of a profession in music as a result of kush lowered him to a digital zombie.
“Due to medication I didn’t focus on music,” he advised Channel 4 Information. “Due to medication I didn’t focus on research. Due to medication I didn’t focus on writing. Due to medication I didn’t focus on something.”
Like many kush addicts, he’s misplaced his residence and now lives on a landfill website on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Over a thousand different individuals reportedly stay on the garbage dump, combing it for something of worth that they will promote in an effort to purchase extra kush.
Alhaji, one other kush sufferer, says that he was addicted after being given only one joint of the mysterious new zombie drug.
He mentioned: “I went to the ghetto to purchase one other one and smoke it. I mentioned ‘That is so candy, can I get extra?‘ and that’s how I grew to become an addict.”
He says he’s attempting to give up it, and is praying for assist.
He was planning to enrol in medical faculty, however kush has ended his dream and turned him into somebody he doesn’t recognise.
Amara Kallon, 21, advised the Day by day Telegraph: “I used to smoke a few slings of marijuana a day however after I used to be launched to kush by buddies, I by no means turned again. I offered my garments and books to fulfill my dependancy. I began stealing home goods, telephones, pots and dishes to purchase medication.”
Use of the drug is now dangerously widespread amongst Sierra Leone’s youth, says physician Jusu Mattia.
“You go alongside any streets you see a whole lot of younger males sleeping on the streets,” he mentioned.
The nation’s subsequent technology of medical doctors, legal professionals and designers have been lowered to homeless drug addicts, choosing over a garbage tip to scrape a dwelling. The fast unfold of kush dependancy threatens to “destabilise” the nation altogether.
Estimates recommend greater than 1million individuals from Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia and Guinea at the moment are hooked on kush.