Sierra Leone is going through a very serious drug crisis, and it has been ongoing for a while now. The most recent data from the country’s only Psychiatric facility, the Kissy Psychiatric Hospital shows that over 1,700 patients were admitted in the facility just for Kush related effects in 2023. Patients admission numbers for general drug addiction effects have risen from just over 200 to over 2000 in the last four years, according to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sattie Kanneh.
Such is the scale of the problem Sierra Leone is dealing with, that it can no longer ignore it. These are only reported cases just from one hospital, Dr Kanneh insisted, during a hearing in parliament last month.
Authorities from the Burial team, say they are burying abandoned corpses every week suspected of dying of Kush. For a country that has gone through civil war, Ebola, mudslide and COVID-19, this problem feels like any of the preceding emergencies.
