Sierra Leone declared emergency over synthetic drug but women left behind

At a vast landfill in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, smoke billows over decades of decomposing waste. Zainab sits there, squinting through the soot. It is her usual spot for buying kush, a cheap synthetic drug ravaging young people in the country.

“This kush is so addictive,” she said. “If I don’t smoke, I feel sick.”

Her current home, a shack of corrugated iron, contains only a tattered mattress where she brings her clients as a sex worker. She uses her income to sustain her drug addiction.

She is one of many women in Sierra Leone who, as a result of social factors that include living conditions and stigma, have not benefited from intervention efforts after the government a year ago declared a public health emergency over rampant kush abuse.

The declaration was meant to enforce criminal, public health and prevention measures to reverse the trend in Sierra Leone, as kush spreads to other parts of West Africa. The drug has been seized in Gambia, Senegal and Guinea.

While officials say kush has become scarcer on the streets in Sierra Leone, critics say programmes are still underfunded and inadequate.

Despite new criminal, public health and prevention measures, only about 300 people have gone through the country’s official rehab programme, according to available data. Most have been men.

Women have been less visible in the crisis. Rights groups say they are historically left out.

Only one in 18 women with drug use disorders receive treatment.