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United Nations warns that the increase in heroin overdoses in Mexico is related to fentanyl

2021-03-26T21:58:29.018Z


The narcotics bureau notes that the methamphetamine epidemic is concentrated in the northern border A bag with fentanyl obtained in the illegal market in Mexico. Saul Ruiz The narcotics control office, an organ under the United Nations, warned about the "growing epidemic" of methamphetamine in the country and argued that heroin and methamphetamine users have been exposed to fentanyl without knowing it, which explains the cases of overdose in recent years. In Mexico there are signs of a "growing


A bag with fentanyl obtained in the illegal market in Mexico.

Saul Ruiz

The narcotics control office, an organ under the United Nations, warned about the "growing epidemic" of methamphetamine in the country and argued that heroin and methamphetamine users have been exposed to fentanyl without knowing it, which explains the cases of overdose in recent years.

In Mexico there are signs of a "growing methamphetamine epidemic," warned the International Narcotics Control Department (INCB) in its latest report this week.

The document indicates that the National Commissioner Against Addictions in Mexico warned that "the prevalence of methamphetamine use multiplied by nine, going from 0.1% to 0.9%" among the Mexican population between 2002 and 2016.

The report details that in a sample carried out by the Mexican government on heroin and crystalline methamphetamine users in the cities of the northern border of Mexico, it was detected that 93% of powdered white heroin, 40% of heroin black and 100%

speed ball

(a combination of heroin and crystalline methamphetamine) contained fentanyl.

In Mexico there are signs of a "growing methamphetamine epidemic," the United Nations body warned in its 2020 report.

"Although heroin use in Mexico is not high, except for some marginalized communities on the northern border, heroin users in Mexico have been exposed, without knowing it, to fentanyl," the text indicates, which would explain "the overdoses among drug addicts in some parts of Mexico in recent years ”.

Mexico has become in recent years one of the main illicit sources of fentanyl for the United States, thanks to precursors from China and India that enter the country illegally through ports.

In November 2019, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning about adulterated prescription pills containing fentanyl that were illegally introduced from Mexico.

In the United States, fentanyl left about 170 overdose deaths a day in 2017, but the increase in consumption in Mexico supports it not only as an exporting country and a transit country, but has also created an incipient consumer market.

"If we do not act, it is possible that Mexico will present a crisis, the illicit fentanyl market has reached the border and is already affecting injecting drug users, the most vulnerable populations," Clara Fleiz, researcher at the National Institute, tells EL PAÍS Ramón de la Fuente Psychiatry (INPRF) and one of the authors of a study that warns about the presence of this drug in a very delicate border ecosystem.

“The profile of the user of fentanyl in Mexico is a 40-year-old man who lives on the street, who started with heroin and who finds drugs adulterated with fentanyl.

They generally have little access to treatments and do not know that their doses are being cut with fentanyl ”, says the researcher.

This group includes many deported migrants who were previously addicted to heroin and then followed up with fentanyl.

"In the United States the profile is different, they are people who started with prescribed medications for any pain and then became dependent on these opioids," he adds.

Currently, a dose of heroin in a border city costs about 60 pesos (about 3 dollars) but in recent years it has dropped to 40 pesos (2 dollars), which has contributed to its success in the vulnerable population.

For the producing cartels that means more profitability, since making fentanyl is much cheaper than other drugs of non-synthetic origin.

"It also makes them feel functional because they return to having the pleasure they no longer felt with heroin," says Fleiz.

In its 2019 global drug report, the United Nations warned that Mexican cartels were seeking to reduce their dependence on South American cocaine, thus boosting methamphetamine production for the US market.

According to the United Nations, it is a business in which cartels such as Jalisco Nueva Generación, the Juarez Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán Leyva are involved.

While on the United States side, motorcycle gangs are in charge of drug distribution.

"This practice has been shown to be particularly harmful and was identified (as the primary cause) in the majority of methamphetamine-related deaths reported in the northeastern and midwestern states of the United States in 2017," the report stated.

According to the document, the Mexican cartels have expanded the sale of methamphetamine not only in the United States, but also to other countries in Latin America, Europe, Oceania and Asia.

For the researcher at the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente (INPRF), the challenge facing Mexico is that the current problem, located on the northern border, begins to descend towards the south of the country.

It's fentanyl, the synthetic opiate that can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin.

Its illegal manufacture, for years in Chinese hands, penetrated Mexico and spread through Guerrero, the epicenter of opium production in America and one of the largest drug distribution platforms to the United States.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-03-26

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