By M10News Africa Correspondent
© M10News 2025 – All rights reserved
At the bustling Queen Elizabeth II Quay in Freetown, Sierra Leone, a striking red shipping container stands out among towering stacks of steel boxes and massive cranes.
Unlike others, this container is destined to remain on site indefinitely. Authorities suspect it holds crucial ingredients for the manufacture of kush, a synthetic drug that has wreaked havoc across Sierra Leone and neighbouring West African countries.
Two weeks after the seizure, Sky News was granted rare access to the container, where port officials pointed to multicoloured bags labelled with UK postal markings and a large blue drum emitting a strong acetone odour—a chemical commonly used in drug production.
Martin George, Secretary of Sierra Leone’s Ports Authority, confirmed: “Preliminary testing indicates these materials are kush ingredients. They were shipped from the United Kingdom.”
The container’s origin flagged it for closer inspection, as the UK, along with the EU and parts of South America, is on a list of regions considered high risk for illicit drug exports linked to Sierra Leone’s growing synthetic drug problem.
Kush: A Toxic Epidemic Sweeping West Africa
Kush’s impact extends beyond Sierra Leone, spreading rapidly through Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and The Gambia. This synthetic drug, often rolled like marijuana in joints made from sprayed grey-green marshmallow leaves, is known for its high addiction potential and extreme danger.
Samples independently analysed by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) revealed the presence of nitazenes—potent synthetic opioids—within kush.
According to expert Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, nitazenes found in kush samples from Freetown are up to 25 times stronger than fentanyl, one of the deadliest opioids worldwide. This discovery was startling, as there had been no prior public evidence that nitazenes had reached the African continent.
Visible Devastation in Sierra Leone’s Capital
The human toll of Kushi is starkly visible in the streets of Freetown. Young men and women suffer debilitating effects—teenagers battle large, infected sores that render them immobile, while infants born to mothers who smoked kush during pregnancy bear rash-covered, fragile bodies. Many addicts are observed drooling uncontrollably, slumped while standing, victims of the drug’s overwhelming potency.
These individuals are not isolated cases; rather, they represent a rapidly growing demographic of impoverished Sierra Leoneans struggling with addiction amidst high unemployment and lingering trauma from decades of civil war and the Ebola epidemic.
Beneath a major highway overpass that bisects Freetown, a community of men and women, collectively known as the “Under de Bridge family,” live in squalor surrounded by sewage and garbage. Bound by Kush addiction, their bleak lives offer a glimpse into the social crisis fueled by this drug.
One resident shared his pain, revealing that despite losing more than ten friends to kush-related ailments such as malnutrition and festering wounds, he continues to use the drug as a coping mechanism.
Seventeen-year-old Ibrahim, his legs marked by painful sores, described kush as “evil” and “destructive.” He lamented, “Some of our brothers are dying. This drug brings destruction. Look at me—I have sores on my feet just because of this drug.”
Nearby, Elizabeth, a young mother expecting her second child, tearfully acknowledged the risks of kush use during pregnancy. “I know the danger, but I have nowhere else to go. Smoking kush helps me forget my troubles,” she confessed.
Law Enforcement and Cross-Border Challenges
Life under the bridge is often punctuated by police activity. Recently, a plainclothes officer chased a child suspected of selling kush, highlighting the drug’s infiltration of all age groups.
The kush trade has rapidly expanded across borders, moving through multiple countries before reaching The Gambia—the smallest mainland African nation. Gambian authorities have responded with aggressive, zero-tolerance raids, though the country has yet to establish a rehabilitation centre to address addiction.
Tensions have risen, with xenophobic attitudes directed at Sierra Leonean immigrants accused of trafficking kush into Gambia.
A Sierra Leonean man who served a year in a Gambian prison for dealing kush spoke anonymously about his involvement. “Do I feel guilty? No. I didn’t use my own money to buy kush—people gave me money to get it for them,” he said. “I needed a job. I needed to care for my son.”
Though Gambia’s crackdown has pushed the kush trade underground, officials regard it as one of the region’s most effective deterrents.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s government has appealed for international cooperation, especially from the UK and neighbouring states, to confront the sprawling drug crisis.
A Global Network Demanding Multinational Action
Experts, including Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, see kush as part of a vast transnational synthetic drug network that transcends borders. “Urgent, coordinated action is needed across the entire supply chain, with particular attention to nitazenes—the deadliest component of kush,” she said.
Research indicates that kush ingredients are being imported into West Africa from Asia and Europe, likely including shipments from the UK. Ms. Bird stressed that every country involved in this chain bears responsibility to act swiftly to limit the devastating spread of kush in a region with limited resources to combat the epidemic.
M10News will continue to monitor this unfolding public health and security crisis. For more updates, follow our West Africa coverage.
