As for "the weed" in Cuba being fantastico...I have no idea. I didn't see anyone smoking weed while I was in Cuba.

I see people smoking weed all the time in Canada (normally in the privacy of their own homes)...but I'm not one of them. I don't smoke anything at all. Neither do I judge the people I know who do, because they are completely harmless and good people whom I consider my friends.

Cuba is not nearly as well off as Canada or the USA. But it never was... And it never would be...given where it is and the last few hundred years of history that led up to now. If you look at the neighbouring Latin American countries around Cuba, its poor people are considerably better off than in those countries, and its streets are far safer. Cuba is way better off now that it would be if Castro's revolution had not thrown out Batista. That's the part you don't get. They NEVER EVER had the possibility of living as you and I do in that country, but their lives improved considerably when Batista was thrown out.

You are trying to compare a lemon to an orange and saying, "Look! The lemon is more sour than the orange!" No kidding. ;-) To assess the value of a lemon you must compare it to the other lemons, not to the oranges. Compare Cuba under Castro to Cuba under Batista. Compare it to Mexico. Compare it to El Salvador. Compare it to Guatemala. Then you have a comparison that makes some kind of sense.

Compare Canada to the USA if you want. Fine. They are both "oranges". But don't try to compare Cuba to Canada or the USA in order to assess anything meaningful about Castro's revolution. They didn't start on the same playing field as we did here in North America. We were born lucky. Very lucky. We had it all, right from the start. They did not.