The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), in collaboration with the National Public Health Agency, the police, and the military, has launched a three-day nationwide operation to tackle the escalating kush epidemic across Sierra Leone.
The initiative, which began today, will focus on community sensitization, providing rehabilitation support for kush victims, and carrying out coordinated raids on known drug hotspots.
The operation comes amid rising public concern over what many perceive as the government’s delayed response to the crisis, which continues to claim lives at an alarming rate. Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr recently revealed that kush-related deaths have surged from being “occasional” to “almost daily,” with the Freetown City Council recording 220 young people who died on the streets between January and October this year.
While the operation represents a visible enforcement effort, critics warn that a short-term crackdown may be insufficient to address a nationwide epidemic whose true scale remains largely unknown, emphasizing the need for sustained strategies including prevention, rehabilitation, and education.
