CUBA:
'Drugs Have No Borders,' Warns Former Addict

Patricia Grogg


HAVANA, (IPS) - He was in hell, and still feels the impacts of a journey from which many others never return. ”Sometimes I talk too much, or I walk too fast, and I don't realise what I'm doing,” says Yosmany, 36, a former drug addict.

His history as a drug user began at an early age. First it was marijuana, then psychoactive drugs, and later what are known as hard drugs. By the time he was 22 or 23, he was addicted to cocaine and to get his hands on it... well, details were not important.

He spoke with IPS in a park in Old Havana, where in recent years it has become somewhat common to see drugs being offered to foreign tourists. As Yosmany speaks, his gaze is fixed on some distant point. His wife sits next to him, listening in silence.

”I learned to falsify prescriptions, and I would go to the pharmacy to buy medications whose effects are similar -- if taken in sufficient quantity -- to those of ecstasy (a synthetic psychoactive drug). It gives you a lot of energy. You can go four days without sleeping; you drink alcohol as if it were water,” he says.

But the hangover is brutal, according to this man, who only offers his first name and is always accompanied by his wife, who seems to be the anchor that helps him keep his feet on the ground.

”When the effect of the pills is over, it's as if you were being crushed in a machine, (because then comes) the pain in your bones, in your legs. It can give you a heart attack. You can go mad. I knew all of this, but I liked to take drugs, to feel like I was someone else.”

He says cocaine began to appear in Cuba by means of the country's main beach resort, Varadero, some 140 km from Havana. ”That was before Ochoa went before the firing squad,” he recalls.

In 1989, the Cuban people were shocked by the trial against former general Arnaldo Ochoa and other armed forces officials for their participation in drug trafficking and other crimes that were considered a threat to national security.

The much-talked about case concluded with four death sentences, including Ochoa, while 10 others were given prison sentences of 10 to 30 years. ”That gave me an idea of what could happen to me, and I left Varadero,” says Yosmany.

But it was a temporary retreat. ”It is the worst to be hooked on cocaine because when you don't have it you go mad. You become capable of robbing your brother, your parents. I did lots of crazy things, some of which I paid for with prison time.”

He was a drug dealer and user until 2000, and now considers himself ”cured” of all vice. ”The love for my wife, for my family, helped me so much that today you could put two kilos of cocaine in front of me and I wouldn't be interested,” he says.

In January 2003, the Fidel Castro government for the first time acknowledged the existence of an ”incipient” domestic market for selling and consuming drugs. The government then proceeded to launch an unprecedented offensive against the problem.

Drug consumption is considered a health problem in this socialist-run country, and is not categorised a crime in the penal code. But anyone caught bringing illicit drugs into the country and selling them is severely punished.

”In response to this adverse phenomenon, the stance of the Revolution is categorical: it will not allow anyone to attack the security, health, ethics, dignity and values that we have created to confront these dangers. There will be impunity for no one,” said the official statement published by the official newspaper, Granma, in January 2003.

”The illegal use of drugs shows signs of increasing, though subtle in comparison to other countries,” stated the decree-law enacted a year ago. It added the confiscation of homes and property to the harsh criminal penalties used to punish drug traffickers..

In late August, official sources reported that in the first half of 2003, four tonnes of drugs had been confiscated and around 1,000 criminal cases were underway for charges of drug trafficking.

The greatest volume of seized drugs was marijuana -- nearly 3.5 tonnes -- followed by almost a half a tonne of cocaine. The rest was small quantities of other drugs, according to the tally of the Interior Ministry reported by 'Granma'.

Although not covered by the government-controlled press, the stories circulating among the Cuban population were rich in details about the hiding places for drugs that were found during police operations, which often involved street closings and raids by specialised forces.

According to the rumours emerging from the local residents witnessing these operations, cocaine was being hidden carefully inside of eggs, disguised as white paint on a wall, or as the filling of normal candies -- which caught the police's attention because they were sold only to adults.

”I think they waited too long to start the new (anti-drugs) operation. Maybe they let time pass in order to collect evidence, but I think that for cases like this they shouldn't wait until the last minute,” says Yosmany.

In his view, the problem was being hidden, because there was a drug market ”dating back before the Ochoa case,” but it grew with the boom in international tourism to the island and with the 1993 removal of the ban on dollars in the hands of Cuban citizens..

”Of course, the problem is not as bad here as in other places, because this country is a bit 'controlled', but one must not forget that drugs have no borders,” concludes Yosmany, who says he applauds the anti-narcotics crackdown.

Those who are in the drug trade ”are killers, including myself, and they shouldn't be on the loose,” he adds.

One year since the ”Coraza popular” (people's armour) operation was launched, around 60 Cubans and foreigners have been found guilty of being involved in dealing illegal drugs on this Caribbean islands. Their sentences range from 10 years to life behind bars.

Meanwhile, the issue of drug use is no longer taboo in the media, which began to publish testimonies like Yosmany's, and often issue public announcements against succumbing to temptation.

That campaign is part of the ”National Integrated Prevention Programme”, in force since August 1999, involving state institutions, citizen organisations and families in the effort to prevent the drug problem from spreading.