Liberia’s Lost Generation? The battle against drugs, despair, and the future of our youth.
MONROVIA, LIBERIA – “It’s not just a drug problem. It’s a national emergency.” Liberia’s youth are in peril. With an estimated 63% of the population under the age of 25, and 32.8% between 10 and 24 years old, the country is among the youngest in the world, but this youth dividend is rapidly turning into a national burden.
An estimated 2 in every 10 young Liberians are addicted to narcotic substances, with the rate higher in densely populated and economically marginalized communities in Monrovia. The faces of addiction are now as common as those of school children. They linger on street corners, squat in cemeteries, and drift through ghettos, their futures dissolving in clouds of Kush smoke and Tramadol haze. Around special points are the Street Generals (SGs). These are the ‘New Youth’ above 35-50 years- sometimes referred to as ‘Veterans, Babee, Dr, Prof’- navigating life with organized spree and respectfully greetings as they roam free in the blocks, the crag and the barracks where real ones confide.
It is important to know that Liberia’s drug crisis did not begin yesterday, but emanated from War Zones and the Ghettos today. During the civil wars, child soldiers were drugged by warlords to numb fear and conscience. Cocaine, marijuana, and heroin were weapons as deadly as guns. AK-47 was not only equivalent to BA, MA or PhD but a tool for death, carnage, disaster and wealth. So, young, vulnerable people only needed an AK-47 and not education. One ex-combatant, Marcus Weah, recounted how commanders abducted him: “They slapped me, took me into the bush, and forced me to smoke grass. That’s how I joined MODEL. We smoked every day. They said it made us bulletproof.” Marcus’ experience cuts across NPFL, INPFL, and all the other factions’ recruitment strategies.
Despite billions spent during Liberia’s Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration (DDRR) programs, mental health services and drug treatment were woefully underfunded. The result? Thousands of ex-fighters with untreated trauma and lingering addictions re-entered society unequipped for peace.
Today’s young addicts are not war veterans. They are students, job seekers, motorcyclists, petty traders, car loaders, and even teenage mothers. The war veterans and neglected youth’s re-entry into society came with a new wave of addiction. Drugs and alcohol are used to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. So, in and around the streets of Monrovia, we are seeing the proliferation of different substances, including Kush, Tramadol, which is widely available over-the-counter in most pharmacies, Heroin and cocaine, smuggled through land borders and seaports and “Canyan” – marijuana-laced food sold on school campuses to “Supreme boys and Supreme girls”.
Alarmingly, some drugs are camouflaged in everyday food. “Bony-fish dust,” mixed with crushed narcotics, is sold discreetly to male students. Schools, once safe havens, are now sites of risk. In the age of globalization and internet technologies, folks learn easily as travelling becomes easy. On July 12, 2025, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) assigned at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) arrested 39-year-old Quita Kosso Dolo for attempting to smuggle narcotics. During Weah’s administration, a massive seizure of cocaine worth USD 100 million was made, but the culprits went with impunity because of our weak judiciary system. These arrests highlight how drug trafficking in Liberia is no longer random but organized, transnational, and deeply embedded.
Liberia’s international partners have been supporting successive governments in fighting this menace. For example, the Government of Liberia, in partnership with the United Nations, launched a US$13.9 million At-Risk Youth Empowerment Project in 2022 and several CSOs implemented different projects. One of the many rule of law projects was the ‘Rule by Law and Live by Rules’ ( RULLAR) initiative- a SIDA, Irish Aid funded project designed to support rule of law and support youth. While some gains have been made in tackling the problems confronting our youth, progress, to a larger extent, has been slow.
Unlike Liberia, country like Rwanda implemented successful national rehabilitation programs that integrate trauma healing and vocational training. Since 2011, Tanzania has been offering Medically Assisted Therapy (MAT) (opioid substitution) across at least 11 health facilities, including in Dar es Salaam hospitals. Faced with the same problem as Liberia, in 2024, the government of Sierra Leone declared a public health emergency over the widespread “kush” epidemic by establishing a military-run Hastings Military Centre offering a 7‑week rehabilitation program.
These outlets and interventions also provide health education, HIV/STI screening, and community-based rehabilitation support through NGOs and government partnerships. Liberia needs to embrace all actors in the fight against substance abuse and forge partnership with credible CSOs working with “At-risk youth”, including commercial motorcyclists, Youth in artisanal gold mining communities, Community-based rehabilitation, and rule of law education, etc. These CSOs are crucial in promoting peer mentorship, legal awareness, and trauma-sensitive approaches. They can also help youth to find alternatives to drugs and crime. Amid high unemployment, weak family structures and community breakdown, inadequate access to education and mental health care coupled with peer pressure and criminal networks exploiting vulnerable youth, drugs are often not the root cause, but the convenient escape from deeper social wounds.
Hence, the “Say No to Drugs” Protest on August 7 is timely and needs support to safe Liberia from this scourge. Indeed, this mass mobilization is not just a protest. It is a plea for help, a call to action, and a declaration that the Liberian people will not stay silent while our youth are consumed by addiction. Beyond the Aug 7 match, we need a radical National Rescue Plan ( NRP), which includes setting up community drop-in centres and recreational facilities, training and supporting peer mentors from within ghettos, engaging religious, traditional, and local leaders, including drugs and substance abuse in our basic and primary education curriculum.
Meanwhile, at the policy level, there is a need to create a National Drug Rehabilitation and Recovery Strategy ( NDR&RS), which should be funded by the government and partners and jointly implemented by government and NGOs. Further, we need to establish or fund any existing national drug detoxification and counselling centre, strengthen border surveillance and crackdown on rogue pharmacies, integrate mental health services into primary healthcare and invest in youth employment programs to address the root causes of substance abuse.
As we think in this direction, lets understand that rehabilitation is one of the best wars to fighting substance abuse but not only locking addicts up in jail. Substance use is a public health issue, not a moral failure. Punitive measures alone have failed evident by the overcrowded prisons and the lack of skill training opportunities. Liberia needs trauma-informed rehabilitation centres, transitional housing, and reintegration programs that give recovering youth a second chance. There must also be public investment in vocational training, creative arts, sports, storytelling, and entrepreneurship—positive outlets that offer alternatives to drugs.
“No bad bush’. It is time to save our children, our future leaders, a generation that we cannot neglect, no matter the problem. Liberia stands at a historic crossroads. The battle for our youth is not one fought with bullets, but with compassion, bold leadership, and national resolve. We must act now, not tomorrow.
Let the August 7 protest remind every policymaker, parent, teacher, pastor, and chief that this is our fight too. The future of Liberia will not be determined by how we punish those who fall but by how we lift them back up. Say no to drugs. Say yes to life. Say yes to Liberia.
“We can no longer afford to mourn our youth in silence. The time to act is now.”
By Jimmy Suah Shilue: Adjunct Instructor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, University of Liberia.
Aug 07, 2025
