The WhatsApp groups of one of the most expensive schools in Carrasco exploded. Links were sent with information and videos of the police authorities who were speaking in the news. One of those arrested when a synthetic drug lab was raided at the Center was a former classmate.
They remembered that he was “weird”, he did not go with the flow of the generation and he ended up changing schools, but most had no idea that at 18 he was selling synthetic drugs. No one would have branded him a narco.
Neither did the model who lived in Punta Carretas, had worked for important Argentine brands, and behind the scenes of her apartment helped to sell crystals and methamphetamine, nor those of a 23-year-old who did the same in an apartment in the Cordón neighborhood and who he seemed to have a normal life, although in reality he was selling pills, crystals and ketamine.
People who use synthetic drugs are not seen sleeping rough or staggering in the street. Nor are support groups or rehabilitation programs massively advertised.
For this and other reasons, synthetic drugs are “the complete opposite of base paste“, in the words of Héctor Suárez, coordinator of the Uruguayan Observatory on Drugs. Although in both cases consumption is focused on a small percentage of the population, it affects socioeconomic sectors that are at the antipodes and, due to its composition, behaviors generated and the effects are diametrically opposed.
While base paste, consumed by low socioeconomic sectors, produces a rampant addiction that can last for years and going to buy it can mean coming across armed people with criminal records, synthetic drugs –such as ecstasy, LSD, MDA– are bought for social networks and are consumed in electronic parties in a social way.
But that does not mean that they are less dangerous, due to their composition – which is generally unknown – it is very easy to reach the point of overdose. It is not necessary to be addicted to the substance to cause irreversible damage to the consumer’s health.
The most popular is ecstasy and until May 31, more than twice as many pills had already been seized than in the record year, which had been 2018, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior to which he had access. The Observer. However, complaints of poisoning remain stable, so the technicians estimate that the level of consumption is maintained.
This means that, with increasing frequency, those responsible parade through prosecutors and courts. When there are large operations, it is likely that those who have to face responsibility are medium-sized intermediaries, but when the seizures are minor, those who fall are the sellers. Different operators of the justice system consulted by The Observer –and who preferred not to be identified – agree on the diagnosis.
The sales network was generated through very young peopleeven high schoolof middle class who frequent the electronic parties –the star place where these types of substances are consumed– and they pass quickly from consumers to sellers in order to get easy money. In fact, when it comes to receiving a sentence, the majority benefit from being under 21 years of age –relative minors–, which is currently a mitigating factor.
“They are gurises and gurises of 18 or 19 years, absolutely childish,” illustrated one of the sources consulted.
When questioned, the answers are repeated. Unlike the big drug traffickers, they generally testify before the Prosecutor’s Office and assume the fact for which they are accused. Nor do they usually have much of a choice, since since the sale is through social networks, the Public Ministry generally has access to the records.
In the interrogation room, the most usual thing is to hear that they used these types of drugs since they were children and decided to “sell a couple” to be able to buy some. new pair of shoes or buy tickets for other parties without having to ask parents. The cost of an ecstasy pill is between $600 and $800 pesoswhich makes them affordable for the middle and upper classes.
Among base paste vendors, the reasons for entering the business vary, but it is associated with a sense of belonging to a gang or neighborhood, as well as an economic outlet. But the dose of freebase It is significantly cheaper varies between $50 and $100 depending on the amount of cocaine it contains.
In addition, unlike those who produce them or bring them into the country, sellers share social circle with buyers, which makes the business more fluid. If the Prosecutor’s Office manages to verify the sale of a single pill, the minimum sentence is two years in jail and does not allow access to probation. This generates a great emotional impact on the defendants, who in many cases “They don’t see what they did as a crime” –in the words of the researchers consulted– and for this reason they ask their lawyers –who are generally private– to ask the National Rehabilitation Institute to detain them in the prisons that are less violent and with better possibilities of reintegration.
Because they are primary – most have no criminal record – and of relative minors, they are often accessed.
But above these young people who face a minimum sentence of two years in prison, are those who import or produce them. In Uruguay, both modalities have been confirmed: from a cargo who came by order for Rivera from Brazil to laboratories that broke down in little bitshe Center and Paysandu.
Several of those detained in these operations were foreigners who entered the country with documentation and who knew the prescriptions for the drugs they produced. The laboratories are rudimentary and usually consist of a small kitchen with a hood and extractors.
The fall in the perception of risk in students continues
Although in Uruguay the consumption of synthetic drugs is limited to a small social circle, technicians follow with concern the growing trend that exists worldwide. In the last general population survey carried out by the National Drug Board (2018), there were 2.6% who acknowledged having used amphetamine stimulants at some time in their lives and 0.9% had done so in the last year.
However, explains Héctor Suárez, in a study to be carried out this year they will be able to obtain more current information. Since 2016 –the last specific study carried out for this type of drug– until now, the electronic parties, place par excellence of consumption of these substances. At that time, the average age of consumption was 24 years old and today “it has dropped substantially.”
A survey that was carried out among high school students in 2021 and that was published in 2022, revealed that there are “high percentages of students who are unaware of the risk of consuming, even experimentally, substances such as ecstasy,
methamphetamines or hallucinogens, which can become a potential risk factor”. 22% of those surveyed acknowledged not knowing what the risks of ecstasy use are.
In turn, between 2007 and 2021, the perception of risk was cut in half.
The investigation into the death of a young man who consumed EA Sport was filed
In the early hours of November 5, 2022, a 28-year-old young man who had consumed an EA Sport pill died at an electronic party. The Prosecutor’s Office investigated his death to try to determine if it had been due to the ingestion of some toxic ingredient in the pill and, as he learned The Observerwas archived this year.
Sources of the cause pointed out that the autopsy of the young man showed that he had a silent heart disease and that although the pill could have triggered death, that was not the reason.
As reported by the National Drug Board, the pill was sold as ecstasy (MDMA) but actually had MDA (cheaper version).
“It is advisable not to consume these tablets since in our country they have generated significant health difficulties for several users. In case of making the decision to consume the pill EA Sportsdo it with extreme caution, without re-dosing and avoiding the combination with other substances”, added the JND at that time.
