Local consumption of crack or‘Pedra’ as it is called has rocketed in recent years since the country became a major hub for coke on its way heading to Europe from S. America, and crack is highly addictive. Since then thousands of people in Bissau's slums like Reno have become crack addicts. Prostitution has increased substantially consequently driving a new HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The reason people here prefer pedra is that it is more powerful than cocaine and much much cheaper. You can get one rock of pedra for around 250 CFA francs ($0.40) and a few rocks can last a couple of days. A gram of cocaine, however, costs between 6,000 CFA francs (US $15) and 12,000 CFA francs ($30) depending on your source and it is only enough for a night or two. Nowadays pedra can be found almost anywhere in the country, even in remote villages, but the most notorious area for it is called Reno [in Bissau]. It’s a tough neighbourhood where even police are afraid to go. Reno was bad before but in the last couple of years it has really gotten out of control.
Guinea-Bissau’s only drug-addiction clinic lies on a back road in the quiet village about an hour outside Bissau. José Belenta arrived at Quinhámel mental-health centre with his wrists and ankles bound. Then addicted to crack, the former carpenter is now clean and has become a voluntary worker at the clinic. Run by an evangelical pastor with no formal medical training, it combines drug rehab with a safe environment for the mentally ill: Belenta has to break off from our conversation a number of times to administer sedatives to patients or to calm his charges.
“It started in 2009,” he says. “Some of my friends had big money, and I’d travel up and down helping them to transport the drugs.” Belenta says he was paying around 70 ¢ for a hit. He estimates 20% to 30% of the young people in Bissau are now using crack. A World Health Organization representative in Bissau, who asks not to be identified, concurs with that rough assessment. But over the past couple of years more crack addicts have been turning up, he said. Families often turn addicted relatives who steal from them over to the police, who bring them to the centre. But the facility is not able to offer proper accommodation to its patients. Many are chained outside to prevent them from wandering off. The centre also lacks trained staff, and relies mainly on religious instruction as a substitute for treatment. "We work in the spiritual area to know God's word," Mr Té said. "God judges the person who does bad - that's what we teach them."
“We have no proof,” he says, “but if you see the number of people with mental illness now, it figures that there is an increase in drug use.”
In Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the smallest, with a population of just 1.6 million, the drug now permeates the entire nation, from the military and political elites, who facilitate its passage, to the poorest and most vulnerable, who are developing a rising addiction.
Despite obvious signs of the trade — such as $100,000 cars in Bissau’s streets and smugglers’ abandoned Gulfstream jet at the airport — the drug business thrives on a wilful silence. Recently Public television in the Cape Verde Islands says U.S. authorities operating at sea have arrested a former navy chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau who is suspected of being a kingpin in the international drug trade. Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana reported late Thursday that Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchutoand four other Guinea-Bissau nationals were apprehended aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean in an undercover sting operation.
Malam is a 35-year-old Bissau-Guinean drug dealer and international trafficker. He tells me he has full impunity because he is related to a former President. “The police are worthless,” says Malam, who refuses to use his full name. “They’re in everyone’s pocket.” He dips into his own supply on occasion and counts himself lucky. The younger and poorer in Guinea-Bissau use cocaine’s cheaper and more-addictive derivative, crack. As night falls in the capital, young people can be seen gathering in groups under mango trees or in sleepy side streets to smoke rocks of crack cocaine for less than a dollar a hit. “No police approach them,” says Peter Correia, a government health care worker, in his small office piled high with boxes of condoms. “They can’t because of the condition of these people — they are becoming dangerous.”
Now the epicentre of an expanding West African cocaine trade, Guinea-Bissau is confronting an entirely new problem that threatens disaster for its fragile health, law enforcement and justice systems - a burgeoning population of home-grown crack addicts. Unheard of until recently in this tiny former Portuguese colony, use of crack cocaine is a spillover effect of thetransnational cocaine trade.During the past few years, traffickers have increasingly been using Guinea-Bissau as a transit point to move drugs from South America into Europe. Large cocaine shipments arrive here to be broken down into smaller quantities before being smuggled onwards. But some of the drug remains in the country, where it is refined into cheap crack cocaine that feeds a growing number of addictions.
Although the vast majority of cocaine arriving in the country ends up on the streets of European cities, the use of crack cocaine in poor areas of the capital city, Bissau is prevalent In one neighbourhood a local drug lord conspires with police and some residents to hide the problem - indicating one reason that crack use has rarely been exposed to the public. In a dusty cul-de-sac at the end of a labyrinthine network of rutted dirt roads, a group of young men stood lounging in the mid-afternoon sun. One of them entered the dingy, walled-in porch of a ramshackle house. In his hand he held a pebble-sized rock of crack cocaine. The addict fashioned a pipe out of a broken section of car antenna and a piece of tinfoil. He began to smoke with single-minded determination, ignoring the click of the camera and questions being asked through a translator. His reverie was broken suddenly by a large man wearing a gold chain who entered the veranda.
The man - later identified as a dealer - became irate because he suspected that drug use was being documented by agents for Interpol, the international police agency, which is active in the country. As the drug dealer continued his tirade, residents gathered around, forming a group of about 70 people. Many shouted in Creole and attempted to grab photography and recording equipment. About 20 minutes later, the scene calmed with the arrival of a pick-up lorry filled with armed police officers. At the police station, the drug dealer and police officers colluded to make sure evidence of drug use was erased. Given their poor training and meagre pay, it is perhaps not surprising that members of the security forces and judiciary have been corrupted by drug money.
The United Nations estimates that 60 -250 tons of cocaine transits West Africa each year. That's a street value of between $120 - $500 billion. Much of it passes through Guinea-Bissau, which the United Nations ranks as the third-least developed country in the world. "I don't think we can avoid talking of corruption, of permeability, of both of the law enforcement apparatus and of the judicial system," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the West Africa representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Drug cartels looking for a base of operations found a welcoming environment in Guinea-Bissau, where the security and justice sectors are notoriously corrupt and ineffective. "Even if somebody is arrested he has a very good likelihood of escaping prosecution, through corruption or [some other] break in the prosecutorial chain," Mr Mazzitelli said.
Given their fragile state, the police and justice systems are ill-equipped to deal with the rise of crime that will inevitably follow an epidemic of crack use, as it has in cities throughout the world. The cocaine trade is relatively new to Guinea-Bissau, arriving around 2004, according to UNODC. So far, the country has been spared the bloodshed that plagues such countries as Colombia or Mexico, where drug cartels are powerful. But the violence may be starting already. Ms Pires, the justice minister, said Guinea-Bissau recently had its first drug-related homicide.
While rival gangs battle over profits from the drug trade, thefts are likely to become common as a growing number of crack addicts in poor areas struggle to feed their addictions. "You don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't have nice clothes, you don't have shoes. All you want is to steal something and smoke," said one recovering crack addict who requested anonymity. An epidemic of drug use would also overwhelm the country's crumbling health system. It covers only 40 per cent of the population, according to the World Health Organization, and offers no drug treatment programmes.
Guinea-Bissau's domestic drug-abuse problem is still in its early stages, and is small enough that government officials deny its existence. But some predict that West Africa could soon face a crack epidemic similar to those that have ravaged the streets in western cities. In developed countries, hotly contested theories abound about how best to fight and treat drug abuse.But the debate has hardly penetrated West African countries, many of which are struggling to recover from war, as well as poverty and corruption. Mr Mazzitelli of the UNODC said a crack epidemic will only add to the region's woes. "If the issue is not addressed in the short term - in the mid-run certainly - together with its already important health problems, they will have to face the problems of drug dependency and of the violence that drug dependency generates."
In Sierra Leone harder drugs - cocaine and, to a lesser extent, heroin - have become increasingly available, authorities and health practitioners say. They blame West Africa's growing role as a transit route for the global narcotics trade. Cocaine comes from Latin America and heroin from South-east Asia, officials explained, and through such countries as Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The drugs then continue on to Europe and North America.
In one high-profile case in 2008, for example, Sierra Leone's Minister of Transport and Aviation was dismissed for his alleged involvement in the landing of an air plane carrying 700 kilograms of cocaine. And in December 2011, police seized a shipment of cocaine reportedly en route fromEcuador.
As smuggling activity has increased, there's been a spillover effect. According to the United Nations' 2012 World Drug Report, "increasing trafficking of cocaine through the coastal countries of West Africa is leading to an increase in cocaine use… with cocaine use possibly emerging alongside heroin use as a major problem".
Dr Edward Nahim, an adviser to the Sierra Leone National Drug Enforcement Agency, explained that it is common for drug handlers to be paid with portions of the product they're moving, which is contributing to a growing proliferation of those narcotics in Sierra Leone.
"These international traffickers don't work with money; that is the problem," Nahim said. "They pay people with the drugs, and that is how these drugs stay behind."
The only certified psychiatrist in the country, Nahim estimated that 80 percent of the patients he sees are suffering from "drug-induced psychotic disorders". He noted that for now, the majority of those cases stem from heavy abuse of alcohol and high-grade marijuana, but that he is also observing an increase in the use of cocaine and heroin.
Ibrahim Samura, assistant superintendent for Sierra Leone's national police force, also said that drug abuse is on the rise. He described the situation as "alarming," and linked it to "an increase in gangsterism".
"They use [drugs] more than is necessary, and it spurs them to behave abnormally and do things they wouldn't do in their right senses," he said. "They kill, they rape, they smoke marijuana, they carry weapons and do criminal activities."
Samura called attention to legislation passed in 2009 that created stiffer penalties for drug trafficking. In March 2010, the UN secretary-general's representative to Sierra Leone praised such efforts, but argued that to effectively tackle Sierra Leone's drug problem, the country's high unemployment rate for young people must first be addressed. Some seventy percent of youth were unemployed or underemployed in 2010, according to government statistics.
Hidden in a congested area of down town Freetown is the so-called "Lumley Street Cartel Ground". Down a narrow entrance, barely visible amid a throng of market stalls, the collection of shacks is a hub for the distribution and use of drugs in the capital city.
Sitting on a chair off to one side of the unadorned space was an old woman - reportedly the wife of a police officer - with a long scar running down one side of her face. She refused to speak to journalists, but directed two of her dealers to act as escorts. For the next 30 minutes, the men moved though a labyrinthine network of alleys and side streets, to join a small group of youths who were willing to talk about how drugs were affecting their lives and communities. Alimu Kamara said that everything he has goes to drugs. "I won't come out of there [drug dens] with one penny," the 24-year-old said. "All I do is smoke smoke smoke da brown-brown [heroin]."
Kamara and two childhood friends shared tattoos marking them as members of a gang called "Cens Coast Hood", which they said distributed drugs across the country. The young men said they didn't know where the relatively recent influxes of cocaine or heroin were coming from. "By plane, by boat - I don't know," one shrugged. Their only concern was the immediate need to get high, a priority they said was common among street-level dealers.
"I gotta do drugs to move around, to wake me up," Kamara complained. "When I don't have something, it's hopeless."
Asked if there was anything he would like to say on behalf of young people struggling with drugs, Kamara politely declined to answer. "I don't feel like I can," he explained. "I want to change myself first. Then I can say something."
Though few options exist, there are places in Sierra Leone where individuals struggling with drugs can get help.
One is Nahim's clinic in Freetown, though the psychiatrist noted that treating severe cases remained difficult. He explained that in a poor country such as Sierra Leone, medicines used to treat addiction, such as methadone, are prohibitively expensive. Nahim said he therefore employed the "cold turkey method", despite it often entailing painful withdrawal symptoms. "We restrain you physically," he said. "Then we give you very strong tranquillising drugs that will keep you asleep during that period, maybe for one or two days."
Another option is "City of Rest", the only dedicated mental health facility in Sierra Leone. There, Pastor Morie Ngobeh has helped men and women struggling with addiction and other disorders since 1985. He said that 25 of 40 beds provided for in-patient care were currently occupied by people with problems related to drugs and alcohol.
The City of Rest Rehabilitation Centre at Fort Street in Freetown offers residential care for 40 people struggling with addiction problems and or mental illness. The centre seeks to bring spiritual, physical, and psychosocial/mental healing and restoration to lives that have been severely affected by substance abuse and or mental illness. The City of rest which is the only rehabilitation centre for people with substance abuse disorders in Sierra Leone is partly supported by local charges and individuals. Some 30 people trying to beat addiction to drugs like cocaine, are currently on a waiting list for ‘City of Rest.
"In the 1980s, drug problems were very rare," Ngobeh said. "Now, all kinds of drugs are in this country."
Nahim and Ngobeh each have decades of experience working with addiction. In separate interviews, they both cited a lack of options for meaningful work as a primary factor driving young people to drugs.
"They are in the ghettos all day long, and for hours at night as well," Nahim said. "And that's on a regular, daily basis." He argued that to begin to solve the country's drug problem, it is this group of especially vulnerable people that must be made a priority.
Ngobeh echoed Nahim's words. "When these young people are frustrated or depressed, they easily go to drugs," he said. "They want to forget their problems. But they don't forget… and that's how most of them become addicted." Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![BullionVault]( "BullionVault")
The reason people here prefer pedra is that it is more powerful than cocaine and much much cheaper. You can get one rock of pedra for around 250 CFA francs ($0.40) and a few rocks can last a couple of days. A gram of cocaine, however, costs between 6,000 CFA francs (US $15) and 12,000 CFA francs ($30) depending on your source and it is only enough for a night or two. Nowadays pedra can be found almost anywhere in the country, even in remote villages, but the most notorious area for it is called Reno [in Bissau]. It’s a tough neighbourhood where even police are afraid to go. Reno was bad before but in the last couple of years it has really gotten out of control.
Guinea-Bissau’s only drug-addiction clinic lies on a back road in the quiet village about an hour outside Bissau. José Belenta arrived at Quinhámel mental-health centre with his wrists and ankles bound. Then addicted to crack, the former carpenter is now clean and has become a voluntary worker at the clinic. Run by an evangelical pastor with no formal medical training, it combines drug rehab with a safe environment for the mentally ill: Belenta has to break off from our conversation a number of times to administer sedatives to patients or to calm his charges.
“It started in 2009,” he says. “Some of my friends had big money, and I’d travel up and down helping them to transport the drugs.” Belenta says he was paying around 70 ¢ for a hit. He estimates 20% to 30% of the young people in Bissau are now using crack. A World Health Organization representative in Bissau, who asks not to be identified, concurs with that rough assessment. But over the past couple of years more crack addicts have been turning up, he said. Families often turn addicted relatives who steal from them over to the police, who bring them to the centre. But the facility is not able to offer proper accommodation to its patients. Many are chained outside to prevent them from wandering off. The centre also lacks trained staff, and relies mainly on religious instruction as a substitute for treatment. "We work in the spiritual area to know God's word," Mr Té said. "God judges the person who does bad - that's what we teach them."
“We have no proof,” he says, “but if you see the number of people with mental illness now, it figures that there is an increase in drug use.”
In Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the smallest, with a population of just 1.6 million, the drug now permeates the entire nation, from the military and political elites, who facilitate its passage, to the poorest and most vulnerable, who are developing a rising addiction.
Despite obvious signs of the trade — such as $100,000 cars in Bissau’s streets and smugglers’ abandoned Gulfstream jet at the airport — the drug business thrives on a wilful silence. Recently Public television in the Cape Verde Islands says U.S. authorities operating at sea have arrested a former navy chief of the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau who is suspected of being a kingpin in the international drug trade. Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana reported late Thursday that Rear Adm. Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchutoand four other Guinea-Bissau nationals were apprehended aboard a yacht in international waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean in an undercover sting operation.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Bubo Clipped In Sting |
Malam is a 35-year-old Bissau-Guinean drug dealer and international trafficker. He tells me he has full impunity because he is related to a former President. “The police are worthless,” says Malam, who refuses to use his full name. “They’re in everyone’s pocket.” He dips into his own supply on occasion and counts himself lucky. The younger and poorer in Guinea-Bissau use cocaine’s cheaper and more-addictive derivative, crack. As night falls in the capital, young people can be seen gathering in groups under mango trees or in sleepy side streets to smoke rocks of crack cocaine for less than a dollar a hit. “No police approach them,” says Peter Correia, a government health care worker, in his small office piled high with boxes of condoms. “They can’t because of the condition of these people — they are becoming dangerous.”
Now the epicentre of an expanding West African cocaine trade, Guinea-Bissau is confronting an entirely new problem that threatens disaster for its fragile health, law enforcement and justice systems - a burgeoning population of home-grown crack addicts. Unheard of until recently in this tiny former Portuguese colony, use of crack cocaine is a spillover effect of thetransnational cocaine trade.During the past few years, traffickers have increasingly been using Guinea-Bissau as a transit point to move drugs from South America into Europe. Large cocaine shipments arrive here to be broken down into smaller quantities before being smuggled onwards. But some of the drug remains in the country, where it is refined into cheap crack cocaine that feeds a growing number of addictions.
Although the vast majority of cocaine arriving in the country ends up on the streets of European cities, the use of crack cocaine in poor areas of the capital city, Bissau is prevalent In one neighbourhood a local drug lord conspires with police and some residents to hide the problem - indicating one reason that crack use has rarely been exposed to the public. In a dusty cul-de-sac at the end of a labyrinthine network of rutted dirt roads, a group of young men stood lounging in the mid-afternoon sun. One of them entered the dingy, walled-in porch of a ramshackle house. In his hand he held a pebble-sized rock of crack cocaine. The addict fashioned a pipe out of a broken section of car antenna and a piece of tinfoil. He began to smoke with single-minded determination, ignoring the click of the camera and questions being asked through a translator. His reverie was broken suddenly by a large man wearing a gold chain who entered the veranda.
The man - later identified as a dealer - became irate because he suspected that drug use was being documented by agents for Interpol, the international police agency, which is active in the country. As the drug dealer continued his tirade, residents gathered around, forming a group of about 70 people. Many shouted in Creole and attempted to grab photography and recording equipment. About 20 minutes later, the scene calmed with the arrival of a pick-up lorry filled with armed police officers. At the police station, the drug dealer and police officers colluded to make sure evidence of drug use was erased. Given their poor training and meagre pay, it is perhaps not surprising that members of the security forces and judiciary have been corrupted by drug money.
The United Nations estimates that 60 -250 tons of cocaine transits West Africa each year. That's a street value of between $120 - $500 billion. Much of it passes through Guinea-Bissau, which the United Nations ranks as the third-least developed country in the world. "I don't think we can avoid talking of corruption, of permeability, of both of the law enforcement apparatus and of the judicial system," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the West Africa representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Drug cartels looking for a base of operations found a welcoming environment in Guinea-Bissau, where the security and justice sectors are notoriously corrupt and ineffective. "Even if somebody is arrested he has a very good likelihood of escaping prosecution, through corruption or [some other] break in the prosecutorial chain," Mr Mazzitelli said.
Given their fragile state, the police and justice systems are ill-equipped to deal with the rise of crime that will inevitably follow an epidemic of crack use, as it has in cities throughout the world. The cocaine trade is relatively new to Guinea-Bissau, arriving around 2004, according to UNODC. So far, the country has been spared the bloodshed that plagues such countries as Colombia or Mexico, where drug cartels are powerful. But the violence may be starting already. Ms Pires, the justice minister, said Guinea-Bissau recently had its first drug-related homicide.
While rival gangs battle over profits from the drug trade, thefts are likely to become common as a growing number of crack addicts in poor areas struggle to feed their addictions. "You don't sleep, you don't eat, you don't have nice clothes, you don't have shoes. All you want is to steal something and smoke," said one recovering crack addict who requested anonymity. An epidemic of drug use would also overwhelm the country's crumbling health system. It covers only 40 per cent of the population, according to the World Health Organization, and offers no drug treatment programmes.
Guinea-Bissau's domestic drug-abuse problem is still in its early stages, and is small enough that government officials deny its existence. But some predict that West Africa could soon face a crack epidemic similar to those that have ravaged the streets in western cities. In developed countries, hotly contested theories abound about how best to fight and treat drug abuse.But the debate has hardly penetrated West African countries, many of which are struggling to recover from war, as well as poverty and corruption. Mr Mazzitelli of the UNODC said a crack epidemic will only add to the region's woes. "If the issue is not addressed in the short term - in the mid-run certainly - together with its already important health problems, they will have to face the problems of drug dependency and of the violence that drug dependency generates."
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Rehab Africa |
In one high-profile case in 2008, for example, Sierra Leone's Minister of Transport and Aviation was dismissed for his alleged involvement in the landing of an air plane carrying 700 kilograms of cocaine. And in December 2011, police seized a shipment of cocaine reportedly en route fromEcuador.
As smuggling activity has increased, there's been a spillover effect. According to the United Nations' 2012 World Drug Report, "increasing trafficking of cocaine through the coastal countries of West Africa is leading to an increase in cocaine use… with cocaine use possibly emerging alongside heroin use as a major problem".
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| City Of Rest Rehab Centre |
Dr Edward Nahim, an adviser to the Sierra Leone National Drug Enforcement Agency, explained that it is common for drug handlers to be paid with portions of the product they're moving, which is contributing to a growing proliferation of those narcotics in Sierra Leone.
"These international traffickers don't work with money; that is the problem," Nahim said. "They pay people with the drugs, and that is how these drugs stay behind."
The only certified psychiatrist in the country, Nahim estimated that 80 percent of the patients he sees are suffering from "drug-induced psychotic disorders". He noted that for now, the majority of those cases stem from heavy abuse of alcohol and high-grade marijuana, but that he is also observing an increase in the use of cocaine and heroin.
Ibrahim Samura, assistant superintendent for Sierra Leone's national police force, also said that drug abuse is on the rise. He described the situation as "alarming," and linked it to "an increase in gangsterism".
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Pastor Morie Ngobeh |
Samura called attention to legislation passed in 2009 that created stiffer penalties for drug trafficking. In March 2010, the UN secretary-general's representative to Sierra Leone praised such efforts, but argued that to effectively tackle Sierra Leone's drug problem, the country's high unemployment rate for young people must first be addressed. Some seventy percent of youth were unemployed or underemployed in 2010, according to government statistics.
Hidden in a congested area of down town Freetown is the so-called "Lumley Street Cartel Ground". Down a narrow entrance, barely visible amid a throng of market stalls, the collection of shacks is a hub for the distribution and use of drugs in the capital city.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Rehab Bissau |
Sitting on a chair off to one side of the unadorned space was an old woman - reportedly the wife of a police officer - with a long scar running down one side of her face. She refused to speak to journalists, but directed two of her dealers to act as escorts. For the next 30 minutes, the men moved though a labyrinthine network of alleys and side streets, to join a small group of youths who were willing to talk about how drugs were affecting their lives and communities. Alimu Kamara said that everything he has goes to drugs. "I won't come out of there [drug dens] with one penny," the 24-year-old said. "All I do is smoke smoke smoke da brown-brown [heroin]."
Kamara and two childhood friends shared tattoos marking them as members of a gang called "Cens Coast Hood", which they said distributed drugs across the country. The young men said they didn't know where the relatively recent influxes of cocaine or heroin were coming from. "By plane, by boat - I don't know," one shrugged. Their only concern was the immediate need to get high, a priority they said was common among street-level dealers.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Rehab Freetown |
"I gotta do drugs to move around, to wake me up," Kamara complained. "When I don't have something, it's hopeless."
Asked if there was anything he would like to say on behalf of young people struggling with drugs, Kamara politely declined to answer. "I don't feel like I can," he explained. "I want to change myself first. Then I can say something."
Though few options exist, there are places in Sierra Leone where individuals struggling with drugs can get help.
One is Nahim's clinic in Freetown, though the psychiatrist noted that treating severe cases remained difficult. He explained that in a poor country such as Sierra Leone, medicines used to treat addiction, such as methadone, are prohibitively expensive. Nahim said he therefore employed the "cold turkey method", despite it often entailing painful withdrawal symptoms. "We restrain you physically," he said. "Then we give you very strong tranquillising drugs that will keep you asleep during that period, maybe for one or two days."
Another option is "City of Rest", the only dedicated mental health facility in Sierra Leone. There, Pastor Morie Ngobeh has helped men and women struggling with addiction and other disorders since 1985. He said that 25 of 40 beds provided for in-patient care were currently occupied by people with problems related to drugs and alcohol.
The City of Rest Rehabilitation Centre at Fort Street in Freetown offers residential care for 40 people struggling with addiction problems and or mental illness. The centre seeks to bring spiritual, physical, and psychosocial/mental healing and restoration to lives that have been severely affected by substance abuse and or mental illness. The City of rest which is the only rehabilitation centre for people with substance abuse disorders in Sierra Leone is partly supported by local charges and individuals. Some 30 people trying to beat addiction to drugs like cocaine, are currently on a waiting list for ‘City of Rest.
"In the 1980s, drug problems were very rare," Ngobeh said. "Now, all kinds of drugs are in this country."
Nahim and Ngobeh each have decades of experience working with addiction. In separate interviews, they both cited a lack of options for meaningful work as a primary factor driving young people to drugs.
"They are in the ghettos all day long, and for hours at night as well," Nahim said. "And that's on a regular, daily basis." He argued that to begin to solve the country's drug problem, it is this group of especially vulnerable people that must be made a priority.
Ngobeh echoed Nahim's words. "When these young people are frustrated or depressed, they easily go to drugs," he said. "They want to forget their problems. But they don't forget… and that's how most of them become addicted." Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
