The case broke out in public opinion on Wednesday with a statement by the Minister of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires, sergio berniwhich alerted society: “Those who bought drugs in the last 24 hours have to discard them”. At that time, there was 20 dead and more than 70 people hospitalized in different places of the Buenos Aires suburbs due to the ingestion of adulterated cocaine. Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Security worked intensely to remove it from circulation.
The impact that this dramatic situation had on the official social networks of different state agencies and political leaders was really striking. First of all, we have to go back a few days to analyze a tweet from a official government account. On January 21, the Twitter account of the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires had published: “Anticipate to enjoy as you like, without putting your health at risk. Psychoactive substances can modify your perception #ConSumoCuidado #ReCreo”. The text was accompanied by an image that read “Anticipate to enjoy as you like. Healthy practices: analyze what your limit will be. Keep a bond, don’t isolate yourself. I know the origin of what you consume”.
Once the scandal of the adulterated cocainethe Ministry of Health of the Province made a new publication in this regard: “Alert. If you acquired cocaine in the last 24 hours, do not consume it. If you have ingested it and present symptoms such as increased difficulty breathing or a tendency to sleep, I immediately went to your health center.
In this case, the tweet was accompanied by a plaque with a red highlight: “Alert: Given the report of deaths and hospitalizations due to the consumption of poisoned cocaine in the province of Buenos Aires, for the AMBA area, the Minister of Health recommends: Do not ingest cocaine acquired in the last 24 hours; Be alert to the appearance of symptoms such as increased difficulty breathing or a tendency to sleep. Go to a health facility immediately if you have these symptoms, “among other suggestions.”
There is more, and now officials take center stage. The same day this problem became known, the Minister of Security of the Nation, Hannibal Fernandez tweeted at 10:30 p.m. a list with the phrase “drug use kills” that had the flag of different countries but when the legend accompanied the Argentine flag it said: “Whoever bought drugs in the last 24 hours discard them because they are bad” in a kind of meme. Within minutes, the tweet was deleted, but it was too late.
Almost at the same time it was published, sergio berni was live on a television program and when consulted by the publication of Hannibal FernandezHe said: “I’m not amused by what Aníbal said. It is possible that this problem for the Minister is nothing more than a sensation…”. The scandal was such that Aníbal Fernández quickly had to go live on a television program to clarify? his tweet that had been deleted. And what did he say?
He held the CM responsible, as unfortunately often happens in these cases: “The kids were wrong. She uploaded that and then I deleted it.” At 11:45 p.m., Aníbal finally published another tweet: “Let’s make things clear. I agreed with Sergio Berni to help him try to warn about drug use, attentive to what we are seeing. My peers uploaded that image assuming he would help. I thought it was horrible and I deleted it. If anyone felt bad, I apologize.”
But this wasn’t the whole show Hannibal Fernandez. Before a tweet from the former governor, Maria Eugenia VidalFernandez said: “There is no absent State. After she passed through the province of Buenos Aires, such a useless person, there is almost no State left after what she left behind”. What had Vidal written? “This is the result of an absent State, which looks the other way in the face of a problem that brings us all together.
We have to understand that when we don’t fight drug traffickers we let drugs take our children.” On the legalization of drugs, Fernández added: “I don’t think that the best way (to solve this issue) is legalization.”
However, delphine rossidirector of Banco Ciudad, wrote on her Twitter account: “To control and protect users, drugs must be legalized. In this way, the state can have greater tools for the prevention of problematic consumption and containment for people with addictions”.
Through the social networks and different media, different references from the opposition expressed themselves about this situation, such as Patricia Bullrich, Christian Ritondo, Facundo Manes, Karina Banfi, Ricardo López Murphy, José Luis Espert, Martín Tetaz and Fernando Iglesias, among many others. So far, the fatalities are 22 people and 30 are still hospitalized.
