A HORROR drug made with human bones leaves people looking like “zombies” and kills dozens weekly.
The new drug, “Kush”, that is sweeping the streets of Sierra Leone is in such high demand that drug dealers have resorted to digging up graves.
Although illegal in the country, “Kush” is sold and smoked openly on the streets of the capital, Freetown.
The exact ingredients of the highly-addictive drug are a mystery, but opioids such as fentanyl are frequently found in joints.
The synthetic drug is also made from a mixture of herbs, toxic chemicals, disinfectant and disturbingly, human bones, the Daily Star reports.
The ground-up human bones contain traces of sulphur which enhance the drugs effect, according to one medical expert.
Dealers have turned into grave robbers, breaking into “thousands” of tombs to steal skeletons in order to keep up with the demand, locals say.
The joint, which costs 20p, is becoming increasingly popular among young people facing poverty at the lack of opportunities.
Many users will spend as much as £8 a day on the drug – which is a small fortune in a country with an average annual income of less than £400.
Kush has become a widespread problem, with whole neighbourhoods packed with drug users.
The young people gather in their masses, sitting slumped with their heads lolling and sometimes sleeping standing up.
When high, “zombie” addicts have been known to walk into traffic or fall from high places.
Although there’s no official record on deaths related to the drug, health experts estimate that around a dozen users die weekly, with their bodies found in slums, the Telegraph reports.
Embraced by euphoria, the youngsters are turning to kush to “escape the harsh realities of life” in a West African nation ranked among the world’s poorest.
To make matters worse, Sierra Leone has one of the highest youth unemployment rates which stands at 60 per cent.
Amara Kallon – a 21-year-old school dropout – told the Telegraph that he smokes kush to “forget his problems”.
He said: “I love it. It makes me feel happy for a moment, enough to forget my worries and societal problems.”
Amara, who is now homeless, first sold his clothes and books, and then started stealing household items, phones, pots and dishes to buy drugs.
Another victim, a 25-year-old Aby Bakhar, was an aspiring musician before 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 addicts, Bakhar lost his home and was forced to live on a landfill on the outskirts of Freetown.
There are reportedly over a thousand people living on the rubbish dump, scouring it for anything valuable to sell for a dose.
Kadiatu, 22, also got hooked on “kush” and struggles to recognise herself.
To pay for a joint, she resorted to sex work, enduring wounds from knife attacks and emotional trauma.
“Sometimes when I wake up from sleep without smoking, my body and joints ache,” she told Channel 4.
“After I smoke two, three [joints], I feel okay, I feel alright, my meditation changes, my mood becomes cool. After smoking I eat a lot.
“I used to be a cheerful woman with so many fashion dresses. Look at the hair on my head – I don´t plait my hair [any more].”
Putting an exact number on usage rates is difficult, but Sierra Leone’s only psychiatric hospital is overwhelmed with young addicts brought in by families in a last-ditch effort to help.
Dr Jusu Mattia, acting medical superintendent and resident psychiatrist, said that 60 per cent of the hospital’s admissions are “kush” related.
More and more people are referred daily, with many of them sedated upon arrival because of their violent tendencies.
“We have already recorded nearly 2,000 cases of kush addicts in 2023 at the hospital. Many are dying in homes and on the streets,” said Dr Mattia.
To help patients wean themselves off of their addiction, care consists of isolation treatment for three to six weeks, backed by anti-psychotic medications.
They can have psychotherapy and join socialising activities such as sport and sewing.
Michael Manna, 22, is a student whose life has been turned around after years of addiction.
He said: “I was the bad Michael, not the good Michael that I am now.
“I felt like I was in another world, different from this one.
“Abstain from kush’, it’s the best advice I have.”
But the facility’s resources are limited, and many patients relapse without a follow-up treatment.
In fact, the World Health Organisation estimates that there are just five psychiatrists in the entire nation, which is home to some 8.4 million people.
The hospital can only treat “the tip of an iceberg,” Dr Mattia said.
“It’s a very big and widespread problem.”
And this problem has spilled over to the neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, with an estimated more than one million people addicted across the entire region.
