“Kush” entered the drug market in Freetown around 2016 and quickly spread across the country. The drug, mostly taken by men aged 18 to 25, often causes people to fall asleep while walking, fall and hit their head on hard surfaces, which can sometimes lead to death.
For a long time, it was unclear what the drug was made of. Preliminary test done by Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) indicates the presence of synthetic cannabinoids and nitazenes. These substances are then sprayed onto a leaf, mixed with smoke and smoked.
“GI-TOC believes these results are the first indication that nitazenes have infiltrated the retail drug markets in Africa and confirmatory GCMS/LCMS testing for kush is urgently needed,” the civil society organization said in a report last week .
Determining the composition of the drug is essential for organizing a coordinated and evidence-based response to the outbreak. The two countries have adopted the GI-TOC and the Clingendael Institute to co-design the research.
The Netherlands-based institute said that according to people who use Kush, the drug relieves anxiety or simply makes all emotions disappear.
Nitazenes have long been used in Europe and North America as well as Asia, where they have been associated with overdose deaths. Some of them can be up to 100 times stronger than heroin and up to 10 times stronger than fentanyl, meaning users can get high from a much smaller amount, putting them at increased risk of overdose and death .
Consumption is so widespread that Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, declared a state of emergency in April in response to an alarming increase in drug abuse, particularly the use of synthetic kush, and its effects on the country’s youth.
“Our country is currently facing an existential threat due to the devastating effects of drugs and drug addiction, particularly the devastating synthetic drug Kush,” he said.