By Kemo Cham
The Civil Society Platform on Drugs and Substance Abuse (CSPDSA) has been officially launched amid calls for government to fast track fulfilment of promises geared towards addressing drug abuse in Sierra Leone.
The Platform was formed in April, with the objective of providing a unified direction for civil society organizations working on drug related problems in the country. The official launching marked the beginning of implementation of activities by the platform.
Andrew Jaiah Kaikai, Executive Director of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), presided over the event. In his keynote speech, he hailed the move by the activists, noting that the task at hand was so daunting that it couldn’t be handled by government alone.
Mr Kaikai also expressed government’s commitment to fulfilling its promises in tackling the ongoing drug epidemic.
“This is a crisis. This load is very heavy,” he said at the event at the Secretariat of the Key Populations along Circular Road in Freetown.
The idea of the Civil Society Platform on Drugs and Substance Abuse was conceived following the declaration of a National Emergency on the drug epidemic by President Julius Maada Bio in April. The activists say their objective is to complement government’s efforts to contain the crisis. And they intend to do so through advocacy, mobilization, information sharing, and capacity building.
The presidential declaration was followed by the formation of the National Taskforce, which is charged with the responsibility of coordinating the government’s response to the crisis. Mr Kaikai is Co-Pillar Lead for Security in the National Taskforce. He said that civil society must also assume their responsibilities as true voice of the voiceless for there to be any meaningful impact of the national efforts against problems facing the nation. In this vain, he warned that the approach to fight and win this war against drug must be apolitical.
“Government is committed and has been showing commitment since launch of the national taskforce on drugs and substance abuse,” he said, noting that the focus of the taskforce for is now on dismantling the source of the drugs.
“Our primary task is the destruction of the supply chain. No matter what happens, failure to dismantle the supply chain will reverse every gains we are making in the fight against drugs,” he said.
The Non-Governmental Organization, Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT) jointly spearheaded the formation of the platform, alongside Social Linkages for Youth Development and Child Link (SLYDCL), which works with young people dealing in drugs.
Alhassan Jalloh, Head of Programmes at Forut, who doubles as the Acting National Coordinator of the Platform, outlined four areas he said they intended to focus on, all geared towards ensuring the effective implementation of the government’s stated priorities. These are prevention and community engagement, care and treatment support, social services support, and law enforcement support and advocacy.
“The objective of the platform is to provide a unified voice for CSOs in tackling drug abuse in Sierra Leone and to serve as platform for information sharing on drug and substance abuse,” he said.
“As CSOs, we will monitor the government’s commitment in the establishment of treatment centers across the 16 districts of the country. We will also support law enforcement to dismantle the supply chain by providing information and support,” he added, noting that they will also promote research in the area, build capacity of their membership and collaborate with government to address drug abuse.
Legislative reform has been a long term concern for drug campaigners in Sierra Leone who say that the current law is outdated and poses limitations to efforts to contain the flow of illicit drugs into the country.
This Platform therefore intends to advocate for the review of the National Drug Law Enforcement Law.
Habib Taigore Kamara, Executive Director of SLYDCL, called on government to scale up actions and resources in tackling drug abuse in the country.
Despite the assurances of the government, however, some campaigners believe that major issues are being left out even at the start of the implementation of the Taskforce’s mandate. Joseph Santigie Bangura, a former drug user, for instance, says there is a need for the response to look closer into what attracts youths to drugs. He believes that the issue is bigger than just poverty and unemployment, as is largely perceived.
Like many young drug users, Bangura took to substance abuse while in secondary school, which forced him out of school. He said at that time, the drug of popular choice was K2, which is considered as the mild version of Kush, the synthetic cannabinoid substance that is at the heart of the current drug epidemic that affects about half a dozen West African countries.
Thanks to SLYDCL’s counselling, Bangura would eventually return to school. He served at the organization as peer educator and then peer navigator, before getting to his current position as Focal Person.
“Some of the drug users are from very rich homes. They have family issues that bring them to drug. Let’s try to understand their plight,” he said.
There is also a popular concern among drug campaigners that there has been too much focus on crackdown, at the expense of rehabilitating and reintegrating the ex-drug users. The challenge is that Sierra Leone has only two drug rehabilitation centers for a population of over eight million people.
The second center, located within the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital, was only opened late last month. Between them, there is less than 200 available spaces. Yet, according to John Buckle, Social Services Officer, who is also a social worker at the National Rehabilitation Center in Hatsings, there have been a large number of applications daily for enrolment.
The Hastings rehab center is said to be operating above its full capacity. Its first batch was 60 patients. The second batch, comprising 115 patients, were discharged on Friday, July 5, 2024.
According to Mr Buckle, the government has been looking for private rehab centers to be standardized and used to provide more rooms. They will be supported with feeding and medications, he said.
According to authorities, 100 percent of the first intake of 60 drug users at Hastings were from slum areas. And for Kakai, the anti-drug agency boss, this shows that most of the vulnerable groups are in hard to reach areas, which require a strategic approach to reach them and not to focus on people from rich and privileged families.
Also in attendance at the event were representatives of persons with lived experience and development partners.
The launching ceremony was a precursor to a two days training of members of the platform and other CSOs on advocacy and mobilization techniques in tackling drug related harms.
