VOA健康报道2024--In Sierra Leone, There Is Little Help for Drug Users

In Sierra Leone, There Is Little Help for Drug Users

A low-cost drug mixture is harming young people in the West African country of Sierra Leone.

The mixture is called “kush.” Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio declared a state of emergency in April over kush. The drug is made by combining other powerful drugs like cannabis, fentanyl and tramadol.

Extreme measures

Sierra Leone has limited health services. As a result, one community has set up what it calls a treatment center that volunteers operate. They sometimes use extreme measures to cut people’s dependence¹ on drugs.

The Bombay Community operates in the Bombay neighborhood of the capital of Freetown. Recently, the group tried to end the kush dependence of a coworker’s younger brother. After they failed to persuade him to stop, they locked him in his room for two months. After that, he returned to the university he had been attending. He thanked the group for setting him free.

Twenty-one-year-old Christian² Johnson described his experience. He said, “The only time I left the room was when I went to the bathroom.”

Later, the volunteer group expanded its efforts and took over an unused building. They seize people at the request of their families. Sometimes they chain them up to prevent them from escaping. The country’s only mental health hospital formerly³ used similar methods.

Suleiman Turay is a local football coach who helped launch the center. He said, “We turn parents away for lack of space.”

The people in the community help. He said, “Some bring food, some bring water, doing whatever they can to help.”

A doctor in the community visits from time to time. Police said they did not know about the project or the method of chaining people up.

So far, volunteers say the Bombay Community has treated 70 to 80 people. One volunteer showed the chains used in extreme cases to the Associated Press (or AP). No one was chained up at the time. The youngest person held by the group was a 13-year-old boy sent there by his father.

“I was very angry, and I wanted to have nothing to do with him,” said the father, Gibrilla Bangura, a college professor. “I am very grateful to these men and women for their role in helping⁴ my son.”

An epidemic⁵

This year, President Bio declared war on kush. He called its use an epidemic and a national threat. He is leading a government effort to treat drug users and prevent its spread. He has promised to do this using law enforcement officials and community activism.

People rarely know what they are getting when they buy kush. Besides powerful drugs, the drug might contain chemicals like formaldehyde. In some communities, officials say people are digging up dead bodies to use the bones to mix with the drug. They are trying to get the chemicals that are used to preserve dead bodies.

Daphne Moffett is the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Sierra Leone. She said the drug is difficult to deal with because so many different substances are used to make it.

She said in an email to AP, “Before appropriate interventions⁶ can be developed, we need to know what materials are in Kush.”

Ansu Konneh is the director of mental health at the Ministry⁷ of Social Welfare. He said there has been a large increase in people addicted⁸ to kush arriving at Sierra Leone’s only mental health hospital since 2022.

However, the government does not publish an official number of deaths linked to kush or the number of people admitted to hospitals because of it.

The Social Linkages⁹ for Youth Development and Child Link (or SLYDCL) is a nonprofit group in Sierra Leone that aims to fight drug use. The organization has pushed the government for years to put more resources into fighting addiction¹⁰.

Ephraim Macaulay works to educate people about kush. He first used the drug in college. He found he could get a day’s supply for less than one dollar. He said, “Overcoming the addiction wasn’t easy. It was one of the hardest steps of my life.”

Habib Kamara is the executive¹¹ director at SLYDCL. He said the availability of kush grew after suppliers began to produce it locally.

He said law enforcement officials need to do more to target top-level producers instead of going after buyers and low-level sellers. The government has said it wants to help, not punish, those who use the drug.

Kamara said, “If we cannot have an approach that reduces usage¹², in the future we will not have people to replace us tomorrow in the workforce¹³.”

Words in This Story

chain – v. to fasten, hold, or connect (someone or something) with a chain

grateful – adj. feeling or showing thanks to someone for some helpful act

epidemic – n. an occurrence¹⁴ in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people

appropriate – adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

addicted – adj. unable to stop using a harmful substance (such as a drug)

approach – n. a way of dealing with something

1 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

2 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

3 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

6 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

7 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

8 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

9 linkages   

n.连接( linkage的名词复数 )；结合；联系；联动装置

参考例句：

• Only the thermosetting resins provide a strong cohesive forces; this is due to molecular cross linkages. 只有热固性树脂具有巨大的凝聚力，这是由于分子交错链所造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The linkages between the stable units must be as near as possible of equal stability. 稳定链节之间的键必须有尽可能接近的稳定性。 来自辞典例句

10 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

11 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

12 usage   

n.惯用法，使用，用法

参考例句：

• I am clear about the usage of this word at last.这个词的用法我算是弄明白了。
• The usage is now firmly established.这种用法现已得到确认。

13 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

14 occurrence   

n.发生，出现，事件，发生的事件

参考例句：

• Two things account for its occurrence.发生这件事的原因有两个。
• For a military commander，winning or losing a battle is a common occurrence.胜败乃兵家常事。