Cubans self-medicate as crisis takes toll on mental health: ‘There is no idea to hold on to’

Many people are turning to prescription drugs – and some to herbal remedies and even hard drugs – amid an outlook that feels bleaker than the collapse of the Soviet Union Cris Sánchez believed he had left Cuba for good when he moved to London in 1994, but concerns for his ailing parents brought him back in 2018. Since then, the strain of life in Havana has caused him to turn to prescription drugs – “Just to take the edge off things,” he said. He is not alone. Currently under a US-imposed oil ...

By Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana