Kush: Sierra Leone Authorities Burn $200,000 Worth Of Drugs

Joy ChukwuApril 21, 20241 Mins read270

Sierra Leone officials on Saturday burned $200,000 worth of narcotic drugs and chemicals used to make the synthetic drug kush. This happened two weeks after declaring drug abuse a national emergency.

Sierra Leone has been grappling with kush, a drug that has led to the desecration of over a thousand graves for human bones, which are the latest key ingredient for the drug.

While the locals say kush is a cocktail of dried leaves, chemicals, and dug-up human bones made into powder and rolled, experts have described kush as a synthetic cannabinoid drug capable of inducing a long-lasting hypnotic high that can detach users from reality for hours, causing as much danger as heroin and cocaine.

During a short ceremony to mark the burning of the drugs, Mohamed Alieu, head of a police transnational organised crime unit, said:

“We are destroying confiscated narcotics, tramadol and chemicals used for the manufacturing of kush… to avoid the likelihood of (them) going back to the community.”

They also burned cannabis and cocaine, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

“We are waging a war against kush to save the youths of Sierra Leone from dying of drug addiction,” said the agency’s Executive Director Andrew Jaia KaiKai.

“Our country is in a state of drug confusion and we must eradicate it to protect the future generation,” said Joseph Lahai, director of the police’s crime services.

The Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio said earlier this month (April) that drug abuse in the country was a “national emergency”.

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