In the streets of #Freetown, the #Kush epidemic is no longer a whisper. It’s a scream. Young people lie lifeless in alleys. Families mourn daily. Communities live in fear. This synthetic mix of cannabis, fentanyl, tramadol, and nitazenes is destroying a generation. The land that we love has become its tragic centre.
Yet while the crisis escalates, our leaders exchange letters. The latest exchange between the Ministry of Local Government and Mayor @yakisawyerr shows how bureaucracy now matters more than human life. In early October, the Mayor warned that the Freetown City Council @FCC_Freetown had collected 220 unclaimed bodies this year, most suspected Kush victims. These numbers were not exaggerated. Earlier reports had already recorded 142 by September. The city is overwhelmed.
Instead of immediate support, the Ministry sent a formal letter on 9 October demanding proof, lists, reports, and legal justification for the FCC’s work. They accused the Mayor of misleading the public. As if the real problem is bad publicity, not the growing body count.
The Mayor replied with data and calm. Her office submitted the full list of victims, burial details, and cited the FCC’s legal mandate under the Local Government Act 2022. She also asked for joint investigations and post-mortems to confirm causes of death. Still, the Ministry’s focus stayed on paperwork. It’s a tragic example of misplaced priorities. The harm is in the deaths, not the words.
President Julius Maada Bio declared a national emergency on Kush in April 2024. Yet the deaths continue to rise. The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency remains largely absent. The entire health sector will receive just 9% of national spending. That’s not a strategy. That’s neglect.
Porous borders and weak regulation make things worse. Domestic production is growing. Still, arrests target minor dealers, not the real traffickers. Those with connections stay untouchable. The government boasts of special Kush courts, but most cases involve street-level users. It’s performance, not policy.
This selective enforcement reflects deeper political divisions. The central government and the FCC rarely cooperate. The result is paralysis while young lives are lost. From fewer than 50 street deaths a year before 2020 to over 220 in ten months of 2025, the numbers speak for themselves. @afrobarometer data shows nearly every Sierra Leonean sees Kush as a major national threat. Yet the response remains slow, defensive, and fragmented.
The way forward is clear. It is not about letter writing. It is about having an effective National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, to target the real kingpins and their networks, expand rehab centres and provide trained staff, conduct post-mortems to understand the scale of the crisis and end the political games between central and local authorities.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s data is not an attack. It is a plea for action. Every delay means more deaths. If we continue to fight over letters instead of lives, we will lose more than a generation. We will lose our conscience. #SierraLeone #drugs