Cheap, plentiful and devastating: The synthetic drug kush is walloping Sierra Leone

Kush users in a shack at the Kingtom dumpsite in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Cheap, quick to take effect and easily accessible, kush has proved dangerously appealing to a generation of young Sierra Leoneans growing up amid widespread poverty and unemployment.

Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid, is spreading quickly for the promise of a stress-relieving high. But what’s the impact on users — and Sierra Leonean society? And how are the authorities responding?

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