A red shipping container sits on the tarmac of Sierra Leone's Queen Elizabeth II Quay, under swinging cranes and towering stacks of similar steel boxes.

The synthetic drug kush, first seen in Sierra Leone in 2022, has now spread into much of West Africa while also evolving into ...

Kush, a synthetic cocktail usually made from marshmallow leaves, first appeared in Sierra Leone in the early 2020s and ...

In Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a vast landfill choked with smoke from decades of decomposing waste serves as an unlikely marketplace for a devastating drug. Amid the billowing soot and the ...

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A new report released Tuesday by an anti-transnational crime group has identified the core chemical components of kush, a synthetic drug that has swept through Sierra Leone ...

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio declared a national emergency on substance abuse last April following calls for a crackdown on the drug known as kush, which is also used in at least five ...

Kush first appeared in Sierra Leone in the early 2020s and quickly spread across Liberia, Guinea, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. The report said kush is likely behind thousands of deaths ...

In Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a vast landfill choked with smoke from decades of decomposing waste serves as an unlikely marketplace for a devastating drug. Amid the billowing soot and the ...

A young man smokes Kush, a derivative of cannabis mixed with synthetic drugs like fentanyl and tramadol and chemicals like formaldehyde, at a hideout in Freetown, Sierra Leone, April 29, 2024.

Sierra Leone's government has declared a public health emergency over the drug Kush. Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

In Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a vast landfill choked with smoke from decades of decomposing waste serves as an unlikely marketplace for a devastating drug. Amid the billowing soot and the ...

In Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a vast landfill choked with smoke from decades of decomposing waste serves as an unlikely marketplace for a devastating drug. Amid the billowing soot and the ...