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Efforts of the quasi-official National Drug Council and of private groups such as the Drug Actions Service, the Mothers Against Drugs and others remain strong, while drug addiction, primarily cocaine free-basing called "crack," remain at high levels. The National Drug Council stated in June that 10 percent of youth between ages 15-25 are addicts (i.e., approximately 5,000 people). Anti-drug abuse programs will become part of the public education curriculum in September.
CUBA
Summary: There have been no major developments since the submission of the
the March 1987 INCSR. No reliable information regarding drug use or cultivation is available from Cuban authorities. End Summary.
There
have
been
no significant narcotics-related developments in the first
first half of 1987 in Cuba. There has, however, been a steady flow of media reports on narcotics problems, although none regarding local drug abuse.. Due to the closed nature of Cuban society and complete government control of media, there
there are few sources of
of information regarding the nature and scale of Cuban drug interdiction efforts (apart from occasionally anecdotal accounts) and no independent ones.
Cuban authorities
occasionally issue public statements which vehemently deny persistent charges of
charges of official Cuban involvement in drug trafficking. Cuba depicts the drug problem as an inevitable consequence of capitalist decadence and attempts to turn the
the issue
issue into a
into a north-south controversy by demanding special assistance for developing countries carrying out crop eradication programs.
programs. The Cuban
Cuban Government alleges that the drug problem is a result of demand in developed countries, not production in developing ones.
In recent articles in the Cuban press and in presentations by the Cuban delegation at the ICDAIT Conference, the following figures were used to buttress arguments that Cuba actively combats the international drug problem: Cuba claims that over the last 15 years it has arrested hundreds of drug traffickers from 24 nations, who in 82 vessels and 20 airplanes were transporting 1313 tons of marijuana, 46 tons of cocaine, and large quantities of other drugs to the United States. Since 1980, Cuban authorities claims to have arrested 328 drug These Cuban figures cannot be independently confirmed. American citizens arrested in Cuban waters with drugs on their vessels routinely
routinely receive seven to ten year prison sentences. Fifteen U.S. citizens are currently facing or convicted of drug charges in Cuba.
traffickers.