Monrovia, Liberia – The synthetic street drug kush, first reported in neighbouring Sierra Leone, has increasingly spread across Liberia, raising urgent public health concerns. Families in Liberia’s capital report that addiction has drawn many young people away from school, homes, and communities.
Paye, a Liberian mother, told Al Jazeera that her son first encountered kush in 2018 while in 10th grade. Despite paying $80 and providing a 25kg bag of rice twice for his rehabilitation—resources her family could barely afford—her son relapsed and returned to the streets.
Law enforcement data from the Liberian Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) shows kush seizures more than doubled from 80.15kg in 2025 to 166.88kg between September 2025 and June 22, 2026. However, during the same period, Liberian courts recorded only eight convictions, approximately one conviction for every 146 arrests.
About 38 percent of those arrested for kush-related offenses were foreign nationals, primarily from Ivory Coast, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, according to LDEA figures obtained by Al Jazeera.
The growing kush crisis highlights the challenges Liberia faces in curbing drug trafficking and supporting affected families amid limited judicial outcomes.
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