The Villa Clara Provincial Directorate of Public Health acknowledged having admitted three children for marijuana intoxication on December 27, at the José Luis Miranda Pediatric Hospital in Santa Clara. According to a note published in the networks of the hospital center, five children consumed some “candy with marijuana”, although only three appeared in the emergency room “with mild symptoms”.
Although the health authorities allege that the poisoning was “at no time classified as serious”, they direct the statement against the rumor that the event motivated a special meeting of the Maternal-Child Care Program (Pami) and the Health Department to ” To analize the situation”.
Even so, the statement is not clear about the circumstances in which the five children – without any “family relationship” – accessed the drug. They refer that “a person” found, “among the baskets of the Abel Santamaría International Airport”, two packages of candies, whose wrapper indicated that they contained marijuana, in addition to “two electronic cigarettes”.
Nor do they indicate how, after the “finding”, the candies “accidentally” ended up with the children, whose ages they do not reveal. According to the note, after spending a day hospitalized, the three children “ran away” from the facilities. The authorities of the children’s hospital justify their inaction in the face of the leak by assuring that the patients “meet the requirements for discharge” and that they presented an “evolution without setbacks.”
“The highest authorities related to the case were consulted and it was determined that there were no drug addiction purposes, therefore the veracity of the audio that circulates around the seriousness of the children is dismissed”
“The highest authorities related to the case were consulted and it was determined that there were no drug addiction purposes, therefore the veracity of the audio that circulates around the seriousness of the children is dismissed,” the statement settles, which does not clarify whether the The Ministry of the Interior or the authorities of the Abel Santamaría International Airport are investigating the origin of the candies.
The note ends with an “alert” to the population about products that “are found at random” and guarantees that “on this occasion there were no setbacks”, but that it can be repeated. In September 2021, the Cuban health authorities admitted that since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, the entry, consumption and addiction to drugs, particularly cannabis, on the Island had increased.
Reinaldo Fabelo Roche, head of the Department of Addiction Research at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, acknowledged that many young people “have started habitual and compulsive drug use during the pandemic.”
In 2022, the Ministry of the Interior reported the seizure of more than 32,000 plants and 48,500 marijuana seeds on the island, in addition to almost 100 planted throughout the national territory. Although most of the crops were located in the east and center of the country, plants were also seized in Matanzas, Mayabeque and Havana.
The Cuban authorities have maintained a “zero tolerance” policy towards the entry of drugs into the country and travelers found to be carrying these products, including marijuana seeds, are sentenced to very strict prison terms.
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