- Students from the two neighboring schools “get high in broad daylight”
- Instead of prioritizing prevention, authorities mount exemplary trials with sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 26 June 2025 — Holguín’s Marijuana Alley earned its name years ago for the ease of finding someone to sell some “marijuana cigarettes.” But with the appearance of the ’químico’ – chemical – and its cheap and potent papers, cannabis is in retreat. The new king of drugs now passes from hand to hand, from high school students to younger boys, from the unemployed to housewives, while it continues to gain ground in the city.
A few meters from the alley there are two schools, says Susana, who used to attend both centers as a social worker. The secondary school is called Alberto Sosa González and has about 1,000 students. In an annex, “almost wall to wall,” she explains, there is also a pre-university. “With 150 or 200 pesos in hand, any of those boys can get a dose of chemical,” she says.
She has seen them herself, she confesses. “In the morning, before they go to school, you find them there, smoking cigarettes and something else. Then in the afternoon, when they leave class, they go back to the alley,” she says. A few years ago students were hiding while sharing marijuana cigarettes, but now they are completely uninhibited. “Even outside of school, while waiting for their girlfriends, many get high as if it were nothing, in broad daylight.”
Susana is no longer a social worker, but that hasn’t stopped her from noticing that drug use in Holguín is “rampant”
Susana is no longer a social worker, but that has not prevented her from noticing that the consumption of drugs in Holguín, especially in schools, is “rampant.” “Although they have not been made public, there have been several cases of boys being found with little bits of chemical in their rucksacks or uniforms. They have also been caught eating it,” she warns.
Parks, corners, specific streets or entire neighborhoods. The cannabinoid is present throughout the city, not only in schools. “A few months ago I myself witnessed a purchase,” says the Holguinera, who places the events in the so-called Chivos park, another enclave where drug “transactions” have become frequent.
“A man arrived on a bicycle and stopped in front of three young boys without getting off. The boys paid him, and he took out a sealed pack of cigarettes, gave each one a little piece of paper and left,” says Susana, who up until that point was not sure what she had witnessed.
“I immediately noticed when the boys started taking the tobacco out of the end of the cigarette to make room for the chemical. They lit up right there and started smoking.”
Susana has also heard of other methods of consumption. “To amplify the high of the chemical, they buy rum and instant soft drinks. After consuming the drug, they prepare a concentrate of the alcohol and powder that makes them feel good,” she explains.
In addition to Marijuana Alley, Susana relates the areas of greater presence of the chemical with the most marginal neighborhoods. “There is a place known as the Loma del Tanque where there is also a lot of drugs, especially among young people aged 15 to 25. There are very poor people who live there; they have come from other municipalities and the countryside trying to get close to the city,” she points out.
The 26 de Julio neighborhood, she adds, is another “red zone.” If she had to point out the “capital” of the consumption of chemical and marijuana, says Susana, it would be Chivos park.
Susana has learned of many trials and operations to combat the presence of narcotics in the city
Susana has learned of many trials and operations to combat the presence of narcotics in the city. “A few days ago they raided two places on 13th Street and seized químico,” she says. But the areas that are commonly known to be epicenters of narcotics sales continue to spread, and among consumers, although mostly still young people, there are also adults and the elderly, both men and women.
Far from focusing on prevention and rehabilitation, the Cuban Government has chosen to wage war against those involved in crimes of drug use and possession. It is a rare day when the official press or news does not speak of an exemplary trial against sellers and consumers. This same Wednesday, the official newspaper Granma reported the sanction of up to 20 years in prison for a resident in Ciego de Ávila for growing marijuana. Another person was sentenced to three years for knowing and not reporting the crime.
On the same day, the Prosecutor’s Office of Santiago de Cuba disclosed the case — without specifying the sentence — of a 64-year-old Venezuelan citizen, tried for “crime related to illicit drugs and substances with similar effects.”
Both trials were broadcast one day before the celebration on Thursday of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, a day that the Government has used to underline its “zero tolerance” towards narcotics.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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