Zombie drug containing HUMAN BONES kills users every week and is so addictive dealers have to rob graves to keep up with demand

A new 'zombie' drug containing human bones is sweeping through Sierra LeoneIt's estimated that around a dozen users are dying per week in the capital city READ MORE: Psychedelic drug ibogaine could treat traumatic brain injuries

A new ‘zombie’ drug containing human bones is sweeping through Sierra Leone, killing around a dozen users every week – and leading dealers to rob graves to keep up with demand.

‘Kush’ is a synthetic drug made from toxic chemicals, herbs, cannabis, disinfenctant, and shockingly, human bone fragments – the Daily Star reports.

The exact ingredients can vary in each batch, however killer opiods such as fentanyl, are also frequently used.

At the equivalent of 20p a joint, it’s making terrible inroads among the young in a West African nation ranked among the world’s poorest.

In the capital, Freetown, masses of young people can be found smoking the mystery drug, which is highly addictive after just one hit.

A new ‘zombie’ drug containing human bones is sweeping through Sierra Leone, killing two users each week – and leading dealers to rob graves to keep up with demand

It leaves them looking like ‘zombies,’ everywhere from the slums to well-heeled areas, sitting slumped with their heads lolling and sometimes sleeping standing up.

While there’s no official data on deaths related to ‘kush,’ health experts estimate that around a dozen users die weekly in Sierra Leone, the Telegraph reports.

Despite actually being illegal, the life-altering drug is openly sold and smoked on the streets.

A 25-year-old garbage picker found on the edge of a rubbish tip in Freetown, who goes by Mohamed, said he would ‘meditate high meditation,’ sleep, wake up and eat, before starting the cycle again.

He said: ‘We smoke it the whole day, I spend a lot of money on it every day, around 200 leones’.

This equates to around £8, which is a small fortune in a country with average per capita income of under £400 a year.

Nearby, Mohamed’s companions were crammed into a shack shrouded in kush smoke, in the heart of a slum where children played among pigs and detritus.

The synthetically-made drug surfaced half a dozen years ago, although its composition is sketchy.

Pictured: People gathered in a Kush drug den in Freetown in July 2023

At 20p a joint, it’s making terrible inroads among the young in a West African nation ranked among the world’s poorest

Pictured: A man sleeps inside a drug den at the Kington landfill site in Freetown, in July 2023

Pictured: A woman sleeping while sat down in a Kush drug den in Freetown, in July 2023

Manufactured and distributed by criminal gangs, ‘the drug is an amalgamation of the various chemicals and plants that mimic the natural (cannabinoid) THC found in cannabis,’ said Abdul Sheku Kargbo, head of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

The active ingredient’s concentration can be ‘exponentially increased,’ ratcheting up potency, he said.

According to the Daily Star, a medical expert revealed that the ground up human bone contains traces of sulphur, which enhance the drugs effect – and locals have broken into ‘thousands’ of graves to get their hands on skeletons.

Another victim, Abu Bakhar, 25, told Channel 4 News he gave up hopes of a music career as the drug turned him into a ‘zombie’.

He said: ‘Because of drugs I did not concentrate on studies. Because of drugs I did not concentrate on writing. Because of drugs I did not concentrate on anything’.

Like many others, he’s now homeless and lives on a landfill site on the outskirts of Freetown, amongst over a thousand others who reportedly live there.

Someone else who’s seen the effects it has, added: ‘Kush takes you to another world where you don’t know yourself.

‘It’s like it has something demonic in it. They see their friends and people around them dying and yet they still take it’.

The victims look through the rubbish, hoping to find anything they can trade for cash to get more of the devastating drug.

The synthetically-made drug surfaced half a dozen years ago, although its composition is sketchy

But many kush addicts have no access to treatment whatsoever – if they are harmless they are left alone, living as ‘zombies’ but with no-one to care for them, said superintendent Mattia

Kadiatu, 22, is another those who became hooked on ‘kush’ and struggles to recognise who she’s become.

‘Sometimes when I wake up from sleep without smoking, my body and joints ache,’ she said.

‘After I smoke two, three (joints), I feel okay, I feel alright, my meditation changes, my mood becomes cool. After smoking I eat a lot.

‘I used to be a cheerful woman with so many fashion dresses… Look at the hair on my head – I don´t plait my hair (any more)’.

To pay for her hits, she resorts to sex work, bearing scars from knife attacks and, she admitted, psychic wounds as well.

Ibrahim Hassan Koroma, founder of an NGO called the Mental Watch Advocacy Network, says ‘Young people are dying’ and the root cause of their addiction was poverty and neglect.

Adding: ‘We don’t want to discriminate them or to point fingers at them, that´s stigmatisation.

‘We need a speedy and refocused strategy – at the moment it is quite alarming’.

Someone else who’s seen the effects it has, added: ‘Kush takes you to another world where you don’t know yourself’

Although it’s difficult to pinpoint the number of people affected, Sierra Leone’s sole psychiatric hospital, a renovated facility from the British colonial era, is swamped with young addicts brought in by families desperate for help

Although it’s difficult to pinpoint the number of people affected, Sierra Leone’s sole psychiatric hospital, a renovated facility from the British colonial era, is swamped with young addicts brought in by families desperate for help.

Jusu Mattia, acting medical superintendent and resident psychiatrist, said that 60% of the hospital’s admissions are ‘kush’ related.

The hospital ‘receives patients that are at the extreme end — they are intoxicated, or they are psychotic,’ he said.

Care amounts to isolation treatment lasting between three to six weeks supported by anti-psychotic drugs to help wean patients off their addiction.

They can have psychotherapy and join socialising activities such as sport and sewing.

Michael Mannah, a 22-year-old student, said his life had been transformed after years on kush.

‘I was the bad Michael, not the good Michael that I am now,’ he said, speaking in one of the dormitories.

‘I felt like I was in another world, different from this one,’ he said.

‘Abstain from kush’, it’s the best advice I have.’

However, the facility has limited manpower to provide follow-up treatment, and relapses are common.

Its budget is so tight that a US NGO called Partners in Health pays for drugs, rehabilitation programmes and staff training.

But many kush addicts have no access to treatment whatsoever – if they are harmless they are left alone, living as ‘zombies’ but with no-one to care for them, said superintendent Mattia.

The hospital can only treat ‘the tip of an iceberg,’ he said, ‘It’s a very big and widespread problem.’