The Drugs Destroying Youth in San Miguel del Padron, Havana
The ‘chemical’ and ‘ambrosio,’
Parents of some young addicts don’t know how to help them because they fear they’ll end up in jail.
By Natalia Lopez Moya (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – He sits on the sidewalk. The sun shines directly on him, highlighting his dry skin, the golden frame of his glasses, and a fluorescent green stripe on his sneakers. A thin thread of saliva drips from his mouth. He’s only 19 years old and already hooked on ambrosio, a drug competing with the popular “chemical” for dominance in the streets of San Miguel del Padron, Havana.
People pass by without stopping. His shoulders slump forward, his gaze fixed on the ground, and every so often it seems he might collapse onto the asphalt, but he never quite touches the ground. “He’s the son of a very dear neighbor who’s beside herself over this. The boy dropped out of school and now spends every day like this, anesthetized,” says Moraima, a 67-year-old resident of the La Rosita neighborhood.
“That young man used to be very diligent, but then he started hanging out outside the middle school. At first, it was just to laugh, watch the girls leaving class, and talk about soccer or reggaeton, but later it became very dangerous.” Ambrosio, a drug cocktail including animal anesthetics, especially Ketamine, stolen from nearby farms raising pigs and horses, soon entered the lives of the teenagers.
“Before, you’d walk past them, and they’d be laughing – normal things for their age – but now they’ve turned into these human wrecks,” Moraima laments. “I don’t let my grandchildren go out at night or on weekends because in this neighborhood, you either get caught by the chemical or bitten by ambrosio.” The grandmother of three has learned to recognize when someone is intoxicated with one drug or the other.
“The chemical first causes euphoria; they become hyperactive and even dangerous. Then comes a phase where they’re like stones,” she warns. The composition of this popular drug in Havana varies significantly but is typically based on synthetic marijuana mixed with pharmaceuticals, some used to treat epilepsy, along with tranquilizers or anesthetics. A dose costs between 300 and 500 pesos, depending on the concentration and quality of its ingredients.
“It’s mostly smoked. You can even find cigarettes carefully hollowed out and stuffed with the mixture. You can smoke them on the street, and they look like normal cigarettes, though they smell a bit different. Those who know can always tell by the smell,” explains Bonny (a pseudonym), a frequent user of the chemical, often written as ‘kimico’ by young people, who also call it ‘papelillo.’
A resident of Diezmero, also in San Miguel del Padron, Bonny insists he’s not hooked. In his group of friends, others have already crossed that line. “I have a couple of buddies who don’t even go home anymore. You always find them lying around somewhere, in the street or some bush, looking like zombies.”
Although Bonny hasn’t reached that point, drug use has already led him downhill. “I work as a delivery man for a business selling construction materials, and more than half of what I earn goes on those little cigarettes,” he confesses. “But I’m still functional. I get up, grab my tricycle, and haul cement sacks or sand.”
Damián, however, has not been as lucky. The son of a doctor and an engineer, the 20-year-old had just enrolled in medical school when he discovered ambrosio, a mixture primarily involving drugs like Diazepam, Parkisonil, and Amitriptyline. Sprinkled with Ketamine, it is smoked in a roll or added to an alcoholic drink.
“That boy has become a shadow of himself. He’s very thin because he barely eats; all he wants is to get high,” explains a close neighbor who often helps him “clean up and get back home.” Ambrosio causes hallucinations, tachycardia, and respiratory issues, which can lead to cardiac arrest and death. “They fall into a dream-like state with their eyes open, barely blinking.”
The neighbor suspects some ingredients for the drug come from hospitals, veterinary clinics, and pharmacies. “In this neighborhood, our youth are becoming wrecks, and we parents don’t know what to do.”
Drug use is increasingly tied to violence. “After taking it, they become aggressive, fighting among themselves. If they can’t afford another dose afterward, they become a real danger – robbing their own homes or even stabbing a dealer to get more,” he warns.
Parents and relatives face a dilemma. “If I report all the drug activity in this neighborhood, my son gets caught too. If I take him to the hospital when he’s so out of it that he can’t move, he might end up in jail,” says Mirtza, a 42-year-old mother of an ambrosio addict. “The other day, I locked him in the house to keep him from buying that crap, but he jumped off the roof to another house and onto the street. I don’t know how he didn’t kill himself.”
Some parents exchange tips to reduce the damage of addiction and help their children quit. “In this block, we are three mothers in the same situation, so we alert each other when we see one of the kids like that. I’ve had to ask for help carrying my son home and bathing him. I’ve even found him soiled.”
The woman believes young people in San Miguel del Padron, like those in the rest of Havana and all of Cuba, “have few healthy options for entertainment.” Her 22-year-old son “started with alcohol, which is a serious problem here because kids grow up watching their parents drink every day. But that wasn’t enough for him. They feel they need something stronger, something to knock them out and escape this misery we live in. Now, my boy doesn’t even notice when the electricity goes out, when the water comes back, or if rice arrives at the ration store. He’s always staring off into space with that grin that drives me crazy.”
“I’m terrified because I’ve heard of people dying in this neighborhood from taking too much or being sold poorly mixed products. The people making this stuff improvise a lot. Once the buyer is hooked, they’ll put anything in it.”
When he was little, Mirtza’s son wanted to be a programmer, creating apps and video games. Now, trapped by ambrosio, his only goal each day is to consume the dangerous cocktail that numbs him from reality and leaves him like a living statue on the sidewalk.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.