A sign painted next to a house led the cannabinoid sellers to flee.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 31 March 2025 — “Químico for sale here,” the synthetic cannabinoid, commonly called ’the chemical’ that is wreaking havoc in Cuba. The phrase appeared painted in enormous white letters on the asphalt of Pérez Street in Luyanó (Havana) this Sunday, leaving all the neighbors who passed by to do some shopping, walk their dogs, or simply take a walk speechless. “It’s a huge sign, it takes up about three houses,” they commented in surprise to one another several hours before it was erased.
The residents, between amused and stunned, discussed the incident. For most, it was clear that it couldn’t be an advertisement to attract customers, but rather a complaint to notify the police. “That’s a defiant attitude,” argued Juan, who warned of the “elements” who live in that area. “People avoid going through there,” confirmed María, another neighbor. “They play loud music, have their parties, and usually end up with fights breaking out.”
“I know those people by sight,” Juan tells 14ymedio; he believes the graffiti is practically an advertisement. “There’s a tremendous amount of people there, but a lot of people sell químico here. Some do it more discreetly than others, but people come here, to that piece of land over there…” His neighbor strongly disagrees. “No. I don’t believe it. I think anyone would have come in there to report it, because people have children. It’s not in their interest to draw attention to themselves and have the police come, because besides, anyone here who isn’t selling químico is illegally selling something else…”
Hours passed without the police coming, ready, as usual, to erase such an enormous challenge, although it did not help that it was Sunday.
Hours passed without the police coming, ready, as usual, to erase such an enormous challenge, although the fact that it was Sunday didn’t help matters. Just a week earlier, the government’s crusade against narcotics had concluded, under the name “Third Exercise to Prevent and Combat Illicit Drugs,” with one objective: “To reach the neighborhood with preventive and countermeasure actions, through systematic work with community factors, to raise risk perception and rejection of drugs, and to achieve greater family participation in the education and protection of their children.”
The circulation of ’’the chemical’ is not only not decreasing, it appears to be increasing, in the eyes of a population shocked by a phenomenon that has been highly unusual in Cuba until now. Exemplary trials with long prison sentences, talks and workshops in schools and social groups have all been insufficient to control the real social and health problem that these drugs, with their low prices and unpredictable effects, are becoming.
Hours later, the letters were still there, but the mystery had been solved. “I know what happened now,” María says. “They say someone painted it there because they weren’t interested in having that business there. Everyone has their own system here. But do you know what happened? They all disappeared from there right away,” she reveals, laughing. “They put it there to make them go away,” she affirmed. “Citizen justice.”
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