Chapter . . . . .6 ........................................ The Prío Socarrás Government and Drug Trafficking
U
nder the government of President Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948–52), Cuba’s reports to the United Nations continued to maintain that the country’s drug problem involved primarily marijuana and a very limited amount of morphine and that the problem primarily affected lower-class elements of society.1 Thus, for example, one report asserted that “the drug that addicts use most heavily is marijuana . . . out of Mexico, which, because it costs the least is used the most.” The report continued that such findings were hardly surprising, “given that the majority of those using it are from the country’s lower class.” The same report indicated that during 1948, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare had destroyed 222 marijuana cigarettes, 15 pounds of loose marijuana, and just 10 grams of cocaine. The document acknowledged, however, that the retail price of heroin was high “due to its scarcity.”2 The figures for 1949 did not differ significantly: 125 marijuana cigarettes, 5 pounds of loose marijuana, 399 vials of morphine, and 27 grams of cocaine were destroyed, and 63 drug cases came before the courts.3 A report submitted the same year by a U.S. antidrug agent noted that because of excess supplies in New York, cocaine prices in Cuba were three times higher than in the United States.4 In 1950, however, Cuba’s report to the United Nations showed that although Cuban authorities destroyed only 96 marijuana cigarettes and 8 pounds of loose marijuana, 1,117 grams of cocaine had been confiscated and the courts had heard 125 drug cases.5 For 1951, the last full year of the Prío presidency, the Cuban government reported to the United Nations that the courts had heard 75 drug cases and that a much greater amount of drugs had been confiscated: 146 marijuana cigarettes, 1,360 grams of loose marijuana, 87 vials of morphine, 595 grams of opium, 592 grams of morphine powder, 1.5 grams of cocaine, and 350 grams of coca paste. Both drug dealing and drug use were
