Two people have died and one child began abusing narcotics at age eight, according to health records.
14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2025 — Las Tunas has become another drug epicenter on the Island, and the increase in recorded cases, which peaked from the second half of 2024, is due to the El químico (the chemical), which has left two dead. Of the more than 500 consultations made last year by Toxicology in the province, 80% were for drug abuse. The most frequent ages were between 13 and 17 years old, although the case of a child who started consumption at only eight years old is known.
The chemical, a synthetic cannabinoid mixed with all kinds of medicines, mainly reaches the hands of teenagers, said Jorge Rueda Gómez, a psychologist at the Territorial Addictions service, in an interview with Periódico 26 published on Wednesday. The authorities have done everything possible to stop the increase in consumers. However, “the trend persists” and “leans towards the consumption of el químico, marijuana and some controlled drugs such as tramadol and carbamazepine.”
Health facilities have already begun to receive serious cases of substance abuse, such as the first user of methamphetamines – who bought them thinking they were el químico – or the first pregnant addict who, at just 16 years old, tried to commit suicide after not getting an abortion in the hospital. Her “husband” – the official press does not comment on the fact that she is married at such a young age – is also a “poly-drug consumer.”
Not even the doctors themselves know what to do in the face of the teenager’s situation. “In the face of this first case of a pregnant consumer, the Maternal and Child Care Program maximizes care, but many questions pop up, like what will the baby’s neurodevelopment be, and its motor and cognitive abilities? It is a challenge for Neonatology, and we have to be prepared to help her and, in addition, to receive her child, who may even suffer from withdrawal syndrome. This is now the reality of the province,” says Alejandro Mestre Barroso, the province’s main specialist in Toxicology.
Not even the doctors themselves know what to do in the face of the teenager’s situation
The doctor warns of the ability of narcotics to alter the genetics of fetuses. The drugs can “enter the gene, modify it and transmit it genetically. That is, the phenomenon is not only in consumption; it is also transmitted to the offspring,” even creating patterns of schizophrenia.
Two deaths associated with the use of narcotics have also been recorded, one from a direct cause – the increase in heart rate and blood pressure caused a stroke; and another indirect – the buyer argued with the trafficker, who ended up assaulting him. None of the eight municipalities in the province escapes the increase in drug use, although it is mostly concentrated in the capital city.
The arrival of el químico has caused a state of “alarm” among the health authorities. “Given the worrying rise in consumption among teenagers, the Addictions service of the Mártires de Las Tunas pediatric hospital does not have the material conditions to deal with patients who now use drugs routinely,” admits Norkis Sánchez Alonso, head of Medical Assistance of the General Directorate of Health.
El químico, which “has maliciously settled on the streets of Las Tunas,” even forced the authorities to organize a first Provincial Workshop on Addictions in January. In other provinces the arrests of traffickers have also been published on official social media as a form of warning.
The “quimiqueros,” as the users of this drug are called, end up living in a hospital during treatment and have already become frequent patients in the health centers of Las Tunas. The province even enabled an ad hoc room with 17 beds shared by alcoholics and drug addicts.
“It is very difficult to put addictions aside, hence the importance of not starting this habit”
“It is very difficult to put addictions aside, hence the importance of not starting this dangerous habit. From the fourth hour of suspending consumption, important and harmful withdrawal symptoms appear: anxiety, despair, insomnia and aggressiveness. Then come the feeling of skin alterations, hallucinations, nightmares and functioning at a psychotic level, bordering on insanity,” explains the specialist.
After the stay in this center, for about three weeks, the patients face a “difficult social recovery,” and many relapse. The doctor does not deny that the return to consumption, especially after a few days of treatment, is frequent: “Effective rehabilitation is what we lack the most. There are action protocols for the relapses, but we have to make them known and applied from the Health services, or we will not be able to win this battle.”
In particular, the local media Periódico 26 tells the story of a teenager who arrived at the center “suffering strange symptoms, screaming for help.” He had started consuming el químico “practically as a child, in the neighborhood.” In his worst week, he spent more than 40,000 pesos on the drug and consumed more than “10 lines” per day.
“He told his mother that he felt he was going crazy, and she gave him the money [to buy] for fear that he would go out on the street and do something terrible. His addiction caused tachycardia,” says the newspaper, and in the end it was his mother who “almost dragged” him into the clinic to get help.
The therapy and the days of abstinence, however, did not last long, and the official press does not wonder if the case, quite common, is due to the limited rehabilitation system. “The return home was a hotbed of temptations. The new prices – el químico at 300 pesos and a marijuana cigarette at 500 – swept away the money in hand, and when there was no longer anywhere to get it, he went out unrestrained at 10:30 in the morning and snatched a phone from a lady in plain sight. He was sentenced to 19 years in the provincial prison.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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