By Chernor Alimamy Kamara & Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
Senior Specialist at the Kissy Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Abdul Jalloh says 63% of cases recorded at the facility are related to Kush addiction.
He made this statement at the weekly Ministry of Information and Civic Education press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation at Tower Hill on the 22nd of August 2023.
He said 30% of the cases are due to tramadol use, 63% from ‘Kush,’ saying 92% more males take Kush with 72% of them between the ages 20 - 34.
The Psychiatrist said that based on the data collected at the hospital every six months from 2020 to 2022, about 2,800 (two thousand eight hundred) cases of drug misuse were recorded which he said represents over 60% of all health cases at the hospital.
Dr. Jalloh said that nearly 10% of between the ages of 10 -19 years misuse drugs of various types, one-third of all abusers unemployed and 12% are employed which shows that the issue of drugs involves people of all backgrounds.
“Skilled people as well as professionals abuse drugs,” he said.
He noted that 60% of secondary school pupils misuse drugs whiles 11% are university students and 73% are drug users based in the urban area. He also stated that drug is a sad trend in the country as the rising generation of the nation is suffering.
Dr. Jalloh went on to say that they are yet to establish what this ‘Kush’ substance is all about as he said they initially knew the substance to be a synthetic form of marijuana where a chemical is added for it to be more potent.
He singled out the “Jagaban kush” in which any flower is mixed with formalin as very toxic that leads to death through organ failure.
Dr. Jalloh said that ‘kush’ leads to memory loss where the user will become aggressive and start hearing and seeing things that the normal person couldn’t, with the possibility of suicide. He advised kush users not to be criminalized or blamed, for their behaviour which he attributed to the chemical used in processing the substance that affects the brain.
He called on everyone to come on board to tackle the menace instead of stigmatizing users.
In his statement, the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby noted that the health sector has done a lot over the past five years where they were able to reduce 60% of maternal mortality rate in the country. He said nearly 85% of the people have access to a health facility in the country but the ministry is challenged in bringing qualities to those health facilities.
He added that the government is looking at mental health generally where President Julius Maada Bio has appointed the Vice President, Juldeh Jalloh (Ph.D.) to chair the inter-ministerial and inter-agency meeting on mental health. He said he will try to engage the president on how far the government will go to declare a health emergency on the use of drugs in the country.
“Kush is a societal problem which requires everyone to come on board in tackling it,” he said.
The National Coordinator for Rural Women in Action Group Sierra Leone, Matilda Ekan Sonsiama said that the majority of the ‘kush’ sellers nowadays are women. She mentioned a lady whom she interfaced with peddling the substance who said supporting her three children was the reason for indulging in the trade.
She emphasized that the security personnel whose responsibilities include cracking down on drug peddlers, are ‘’the worst set of people giving them backing’’. She added that some ladies take ‘kush’ as a result of trauma, unemployment, and the like. She advised everyone not to experiment with the drug, saying that once experimented, one gets addicted.
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