A pink transport container sits on the tarmac of Sierra Leone’s Queen Elizabeth II Quay, below swinging cranes and towering stacks of comparable metal containers.
This one will doubtless be parked on the port completely. The contents are suspected to be the elements of kush, the lethal artificial drug ravaging Sierra Leone.
Sky Information was given entry to the container two weeks after it was seized.
“Preliminary testing has proven that this stuff are kush elements,” says the secretary of the Ports Authority, Martin George, as he factors to the marked contraband in huge multicoloured Amazon UK luggage and a big blue vat of strongly smelling acetone.
He provides: “Shipped from the UK.”
The container was chosen for screening based mostly on its origin. The UK is with the EU and South America on the record of locations thought-about excessive threat for the import of illicit substances fuelling the drug commerce in Sierra Leone and the area.
Kush has shaken this a part of West Africa to its core – not simply Sierra Leone however Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia. It’s extremely addictive, ever-evolving and inexpensive.
The sprayed grey-green marshmallow leaves are rolled in a joint like marijuana and are extraordinarily harmful. Samples of the drug examined by researchers contained nitazens, one of many deadliest artificial medicine on the earth.
“It was a shock to seek out them in round half of the kush samples we examined, as at that time there was no public proof they’d reached Africa,” says Lucia Chicken Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo from World Initiative In opposition to Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) who independently examined kush from Sierra Leone.
“Nitazenes are among the many deadliest medicine accessible on retail drug markets the world over – with one nitazene in kush in Freetown being 25 occasions stronger than fentanyl,” she added.
The stunning results of its efficiency could be seen on the our bodies of younger women and men round Freetown. Youngsters with sores consuming away at their legs, unable to stroll. Moms who smoked throughout being pregnant carrying sickly rash-covered infants. Younger males drooling from the extreme excessive and slumped over whereas nonetheless standing.
They aren’t the fringes of Sierra Leonean society however a rising demographic of kush customers trying to find an escape. Folks riddled by poverty and unemployment, dwelling at midnight corners of a capital metropolis which has endured a brutal civil warfare and Ebola epidemic within the final three a long time alone.
A whole neighborhood of women and men of all ages is held collectively by kush habit below a essential highway that cuts by means of the guts of Freetown.
They name themselves the “Beneath de Bridge household” and reside within the shadows of the overpass, surrounded by the sewage and garbage discarded by their neighbours.
Certainly one of them tells us the cruel circumstances drive him to maintain smoking kush even after shedding greater than 10 mates to the drug – killed by massive contaminated sores and malnutrition.
Close by, 17-year-old Ibrahim is pained by rising sores and says the drug is destroying his life.
“This drug is evil. This drug is unhealthy. I do not know why they gave me this drug on this nation. Our brothers are struggling. Some are dying, some have sores on their toes. This drug brings destruction,” he says.
“Have a look at me – simply due to this drug. I’ve sores on my toes.”
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Throughout a stream of sewage, a younger mom anticipating her second little one cries from worry and anguish once I ask her concerning the threat of smoking whereas pregnant.
“Sure, I do know the danger,” Elizabeth says, nodding.
“I will maintain smoking whereas I reside right here however I’ve nowhere else to go. It helps me neglect my worries and challenges.”
Life below the bridge is disrupted from its sleepiness by a yell. A plain-clothed police officer is chasing a baby accused of promoting kush.
The profitable trade is absorbing all age teams and spreading quickly to close by international locations – even passing by means of three totally different borders to succeed in the smallest nation in mainland Africa, The Gambia.
Police hunt for kush sellers in West Africa
Gambian legislation enforcement has cracked down on spreading kush use with common zero tolerance drug raids. The small inhabitants is extraordinarily susceptible and the nation is but to open its first rehabilitation centre. Rising xenophobia appears to be largely directed at Sierra Leonean immigrants who they blame for smuggling kush into the nation.
We spoke to at least one man from Sierra Leone who was arrested for dealing kush in The Gambia and spent a 12 months in jail. He says that although he feels saddened different Sierra Leoneans are being alienated because of the commerce he was concerned in, he has no regret for “following orders”.
“Do I really feel responsible for promoting it? No, I do not really feel responsible. I am not utilizing my cash to purchase the kush, folks all the time give me cash to get kush for them,” he tells Sky Information anonymously.
“I wanted a job. I wanted to handle my son.”
Gambia’s hardline strategy has been credited with driving its native kush trade underground reasonably than eradicating it however remains to be hailed as essentially the most impactful technique within the area. Sierra Leone’s authorities informed Sky Information it wants assist from surrounding international locations and the UK to sort out the sprawling disaster.
Transnational crime specialists like Lucia Chicken Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo see the rise of kush as a part of a worldwide artificial medicine community that requires a multi-national response.
“Coordinated motion is urgently wanted throughout the provision chain, notably centered on nitazenes – the deadliest kush part,” says Ms Chicken.
“Our analysis indicated that kush elements are being imported to West Africa from international locations in Asia and Europe, doubtless together with the UK. All international locations within the provide chain bear accountability to behave to mitigate the devastating and increasing impacts of kush throughout West Africa, a area with scarce assets to reply.”
