In a Havana park, in broad daylight, a young man walks erratically, shuffling his feet with a vacant stare, like a zombie. It’s the effect of “el químico,” the synthetic drug that has set off alarms on the island.
In a country accustomed to low levels of drug use, consumption of this highly addictive synthetic cannabinoid, cheaper and more potent than marijuana, has spread in recent years in the capital and even into the provinces. Until three months ago, 21-year-old Josué Ángel Espinosa was completely hooked on this drug.
“I couldn’t eat a plate of food without using,” and “I couldn’t sleep.” He had to smoke up to 15 cigarettes laced with “el químico” to fall asleep, the young man said.He is one of five Cubans in rehabilitation at a Rescue House for addicts, founded a year ago by 36-year-old evangelical pastor Rotyam Castro on the outskirts of the city.
This preacher says “it’s something that got out of control.” “I’ve met addicted kids from the streets, from the underworld,” but also “artists, musicians, professionals,” he lists. `Although there are no official statistics on users on the island, the preacher believes the boom of this designer drug among young people is due both to the deep economic crisis gripping the communist island of 9.7 million people and to the drug’s addictive power and low cost.
Cocktail
A dose can cost 100 pesos (about 25 U.S. cents), three times less than the cheapest pack of cigarettes sold on the island. This drug is a cocktail made with substances such as “carbamazepine, benzodiazepines, animal anesthetic, and even formalin, fentanyl, and phenobarbital,” explained Héctor Ernesto González, an anti-drug specialist with the Interior Ministry, on state television.
Clandestine cooks dilute the substance and spray it onto some herb or onto paper, hence the names “el químico” and “el papelito” (the little paper).“I used this drug a lot,” says Gabriel Chéscoles, 30, father of an eight-year-old and a plumber by trade, who arrived at the rehab center “destroyed,” with long hair, unshaven, and smelling bad.
Now in better shape and calmer, he describes how “‘el químico’ is placed inside a cigarette” and “‘the paper’ is put on the tip” of the cigarette. A dose produces an effect “between 50 and 100 times stronger than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),” the main psychoactive component of cannabis, the official notes.
Zombie-like gait
In recurring videos on social media, young people can be seen wandering disoriented, talking to themselves with a vacant look; sometimes they collapse or have convulsions after an overdose. These addicts show symptoms such as euphoria, drowsiness, nausea, loss of appetite, seizures, tachycardia, high blood pressure, severe arrhythmias, and poor coordination of movements.
“Hence the contracted postures from muscle rigidity and the zombie-like gait,” explains Elizabeth Céspedes, director of the Adolescent Detoxification Center at the Health Ministry, to the official press. Chef Luis Yankiel Zambrano, 33, had been “enslaved” by several drugs for 10 years when his family turned to the rehab center.
“Lately I would cry and tell my mother I couldn’t go on like that,” Zambrano adds. Faced with the alarming situation, authorities toughened penalties against traffickers of “el químico” and in December launched a prevention campaign in high-risk areas.
AFP asked Cuban authorities for access to the neighborhood forums meant to prevent this problem but did not receive authorization. At the rescue house, under a free and voluntary residential program, detox proceeds without medication, with psalms and prayers, behavior classes, and collective work.
After three months in rehab, Espinosa and Zambrano dream of opening their own businesses to support themselves and the house that pulled them out of drugs. Chéscoles admits he isn’t ready yet, but notes progress: “My mother looks different, my father supports me. I’ve regained everyone’s trust and affection.”
