By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The Government of Sierra Leone has informed members of the general public on the robust and workable measures the government has taken to permanently curtail the prevalence of Kush and the introduction of other harmful drugs in the country.
The Sierra Leone Government made known this laudable venture on Tuesday 29th August 2023 through the weekly press briefing of the Ministry of Information and Civic Education at the conference room of Foreign Affairs building.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Rtd Major General David T.O. Taluva intimated that they had last week presented a paper to the cabinet on the workable strategies proposed to permanently address the prevalence of Kush in the country.
One of the strategies the Internal Minister mentioned was to capacitate those that would be on the forefront in the battle against Kush, justifying that drug is like a war and that it needs strong determination. The second objective the Minister mentioned was to cut off the supply chain, adding that it is key and that it needs the collective effort of everyone. “The last strategy is effective monitoring and ensure that no other harmful drug is introduced in the country,” he assured.
The Minister of Internal Affairs explained that the fight against Kush is not a fight for a single ministry, as he revealed that it had been one of the major sponsors of lawlessness in the country. He affirmed that a lot of ministries including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Social Welfare, Health and Sanitation, Education, Labour, and many others had team up to fight the issue of Kush in the country.
In her statement at the press briefing, the Minister of Social Welfare, Melrose Karmity expressed her dismay over the damages Kush had caused to the youth in Sierra Leone, saying “If the youth go astray the country would be dumb.” As the Ministry responsible for the welfare of the people in the country, she assured that they were working on providing psychosocial cancelling measures to get those youths back to their rightful senses.
The Minister of Social Welfare emphasized that the psychosocial approach would be instrumental in getting those already lost youths and reintegrates them into the society. “Recently we have employed over 140 psychosocial workers and we now have an infrastructure to begin right away the psychosocial cancelling,” she added. The Welfare Minister assured to bring along the faith healing centers, Imams and Pastors as another approach to resolving the Kush pandemic. She assured that the government would not criminalize Kush victims and also said they were rehabilitating the cancelling center.
Juliet Kaikai, AG. Executive Director Advocaid also expressed that addressing the issue of Kush required what she described as a people centered approach. Explaining on the perspective of survivors she revealed that 52 people were under trial whilst 16 had been convicted over the issues of drug abuse.
Adding to the measures outlined by the Minister of Internal Affairs, she suggested that there should a provision in the constitution of Sierra Leone on issues related to drug abuse. “We don’t have systems in place. The gap in the law has no provision for harm reduction,” she said. Juliet expressed that until there is a legal framework on drugs abuse before a permanent solution would be reached. She affirmed that she had never seen where they had arrested those producing any of those drugs that had been affecting the country.
Madam Kaikai asserted that when those who supposed to act failed, the community would organize itself. She recalled on the issue of a woman that was mercilessly beaten for taking Kush. She condemned that act and expressed her appreciation for the robust action the government had taken.
