If you've watched the Lee Abraham and Jesse Dylan film "Super Weed," you're likely familiar with the dystopian concept of producing cannabis from deceased bodies. The movie explores a dystopian narrative where a university student named Silas cultivates and sells cannabis from his residence. In one plot twist, Silas uses the ashes of his deceased best friend to grow marijuana, leading to hallucinatory encounters with the friend's ghost. While the concept may seem far-fetched and morally questionable at first, recent events in West Africa suggest that the idea of using human remains in drug production has real-world precedence.
The residents of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a port city in Africa, have commented that even the dead can't rest in the city. This remark stems from the emergence of a new synthetic drug called "kush," believed to be made from ground human bones. In response to the widespread drug abuse, Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency. In his address to the nation on April 4, President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone warned that "the devastating impact of drugs and substance abuse, particularly the destructive synthetic drug kush," poses "an existential threat" to the nation.
A report by a journalist for Business Insider uncovered troubling practices where
gravediggers allegedly harvest human bones to produce potent synthetic drugs. This has prompted cemeteries to enhance security measures to prevent such activities. In response to the situation, certain cemeteries have requested additional police support to safeguard the integrity of the deceased.
The emergence of "Kush" as a synthetic drug raises concerns about its potential spread to other regions, particularly given the increasing prevalence of synthetic drug use, as evidenced by the fentanyl crisis in the United States.
Although the number of drug users is not officially recorded, reports claim that users can easily be identified. According to reports from Sally Hayden for The Irish Times, the streets of Freetown, the capital of the country, are allegedly crowded with young men who frequently sit or lie where they passed out from drug use.
Reports indicate that Kush has been present in urban areas for an extended period, yet its precise origin and composition remain elusive. According to Business Insider, the primary ingredients of Kush include tobacco, cannabis, tramadol, and fentanyl. However, there are suggestions that formaldehyde, a preservative commonly found in corpse fluid, may also be an additional component. The National Library of Medicine highlights that formaldehyde possesses euphoric effects, potentially explaining why some Kush users resort to invasive measures, such as disturbing the privacy of corpses, to obtain bones for production.
Editor of Politico SL, a local news source, Mabinty Magdalene Kamar, said that people who use kush have told her that the drugs actually contain bones, which, if proven true by more evidence, supports the current theory of citizens and the government. "We heard stories about boys breaking into cemeteries and tombs and then taking out the bones of dead bodies, grinding them just to produce kush," she told Business Insider.
According to Abdul Jalloh, a mental health professional and hospital care manager at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital, Kush users are confronted with a range of severe physical health issues including skin necrosis, ulcers, wounds, oral problems, kidney and liver problems, and eye infections. These observations were reported by Business Insider. Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the potentially fatal effects of the drug, with a doctor informing the BBC that "in recent months," numerous men in Freetown have reportedly died from organ failure linked to the synthetic drug.
Some citizens attribute the widespread use of Kush to its ability to induce forgetfulness. With many individuals in Sierra Leone grappling with poverty and facing soaring unemployment rates, there's a perception that some are resorting to Kush as a means of escaping these challenges. According to the city’s police, most of the users have dealt with the issue of unemployment before in their lives, but peer pressure is a major factor as well.
Salifu Kamara, a 21-year-old Kush user, told NPR. "It makes you forget. We're under such strain. There's no work. There's nothing here."
Authorities have compared kush to synthetic cannabinoids, according to the Guardian. Chemically created compounds known as synthetic cannabinoids have effects similar to those of cannabis but have the potential to be far more dangerous and unpredictable. Toxic synthetic cannabinoids can induce a fast heartbeat, vomiting, agitation, disorientation, and hallucinations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Synthetic marijuana" has the potential to be 100 times more potent than regular marijuana and can cause severe side effects like seizures, psychosis, and even death.
Synthetic drugs, marketed under various names such as "spice," "K2," "black mamba," or "crazy clown," have experienced a notable increase in prevalence worldwide in recent years. The production scale and rapid alteration of specific ingredients by drug manufacturers have outpaced law enforcement efforts, leading to challenges in regulation, a trend observed in Sierra Leone presently. Despite the emergence of Kush made from human bones as a recent issue, it garnered limited attention on social media and among the general public. There is an expectation that the use of synthetic drugs will continue to escalate in the foreseeable future unless governments intensify efforts to enhance social awareness about drug use. The potential ramifications extend beyond individual citizens to encompass the overall well-being of the nation.