Hi My name is Edwina and I am hoping to raise for funds for a detox and rehab in Sierra Leone. I plan to volunteer and support with setting up this rehab which is currently in its infancy. My past experience has been working within detoxes and supporting clients with addictions needs.

Khush has become an epidemic in Sierra Leone and I would like to support the country in their battle to save generations of young people being lost to substance misuse.

Kush is wreaking havoc in west Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone where it is estimated to kill around a dozen people each week and hospitalise thousands.

The drug, taken mostly by men aged 18 to 25, causes people to fall asleep while walking, to fall over, to bang their heads against hard surfaces and to walk into moving traffic.

Kush should not be confused with the drug of the same name found in the US, which is a mixture of “an ever-changing host of chemicals” sprayed on plant matter and smoked. Kush in Sierra Leone is quite different; it is a mixture of cannabis, fentanyl, tramadol, formaldehyde and – according to some – ground down humans bones.

It is mixed by local criminal gangs, but the constituent drugs have international sources, facilitated no doubt by the internet and digital communications.

While cannabis is widely grown in Sierra Leone, the fentanyl is thought to originate in clandestine laboratories in China where the drug is manufactured illegally and shipped to west Africa. Tramadol has a similar source, namely illegal laboratories across Asia. Formaldehyde, which can cause hallucinations, is also reported in this mixture.

As for ground human bones, there is no definitive answer about whether or not they occur in the drug, where such bones would come from, or why they might be incorporated into the drug. Some people say that grave robbers provide the bones, but there is no direct evidence of this.

But why would bones be incorporated into the drug? Some suggest that the sulphur content of the bones causes a high. Another reason might be the drug content of the bones themselves, if the deceased was a fentanyl or tramadol user.

However, both are unlikely. Sulphur levels in bones are not high. Smoking sulphur would result in highly toxic sulphur dioxide being produced and inhaled. Any drug content in bones is orders of magnitude less than that required to cause a physiological effect.

I have given up sugar just now and hopefully some of you may join me in sacrificing a luxury and as a consequence being able to donate a small amount towards the work that I will doing.

The funds that I hope to raise will cover basic needs for the young people such as food, clothes, medication and basic tools for occupational therapy.