Prison sentence for a Cuban woman for selling synthetic marijuana in Matanzas.

A Cuban woman is serving a six-year prison sentence in Matanzas for allegedly selling synthetic marijuana.

An article published by the officialist newspaper Girón recounts the story of "Rachel" - a hypothetical name from which the aforementioned media has reconstructed the real story of the arrested woman - a woman native to the center of the island, but residing in Cárdenas, who allegedly only engaged in "virtual sales" and worked on the platforms of buying and selling groups.

During one of her frequent trips between Cárdenas and Havana, she was stopped at the Varadero toll booth on a bus destined for Santa Marta. Upon searching her, they found a small bag with 0.75 grams of synthetic cannabinoid.

The woman claimed that it was for her own consumption, never for selling, that she only traded legal items and cookies on the stands of Buying and Selling groups.

However, the police had evidence that days before his arrest, he had visited a citizen from San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, who had provided him with synthetic marijuana for 5,000 pesos.

"The latter character, in his role as intermediary, received a payment of 200 pesos. All this happened at the beginning of 2023, when inflation had not yet worsened as it is at present, in case you are surprised by the small amounts that were handled in this paragraph," clarified the official source.

Through several audios and messages detected on the detainee's mobile phone, seized during the investigative process, it was verified that she offered the product at a price ranging from 150 to 180 pesos per cigar to different people in Cárdenas.

The source even mixed the pure product with cigarette tobacco to increase the quantity.

The woman was arrested and was found guilty -according to Article 235 of the Penal Code- of the crime of acquisition and possession of illegal drugs or substances with similar effects.

He was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in case 1-165 of 2003 by the first criminal chamber of the Provincial People's Court of Matanzas, a sentence he is currently serving.

The source mentioned that the woman appealed the verdict and the decision of the Provincial Court was upheld.

Synthetic marijuana is mostly manufactured in China. These are synthetic cannabinoids made in clandestine laboratories mixed with other extremely toxic chemicals for health and made without any type of control.

Those substances are usually manufactured in powder form, which is diluted in water and sprayed to fix it on any type of material with a vegetable-like appearance of dubious origin.

Its effect can cause hallucinations, aggressiveness, seizures, delirium, psychotic episodes, or heartbeat irregularities, among others. It causes serious damage at a cerebral level, especially considering that the main consumers are young individuals still in mental development.

The mentioned case occurs in a context of a marked increase in the consumption of various types of drugs in Cuba, a phenomenon that the Cuban authorities have ended up admitting.

The majority of drug consumers on the island are young people and teenagers.