United Nations warns of an expansion in the methamphetamine market in Mexico

Mexican Army personnel disable an alleged laboratory for the production of synthetic drugs in Sinaloa, this June 9. SEDENA (CUARTOSCURO)

Mexico has become one of the main producers of methamphetamine in the world.

This is stated in the latest United Nations World Drug Report presented this Monday, which also warns of an expansion in the market for this substance in the country in recent years.

Two indicators that did not exist until now have led the organization to this conclusion: Mexico has been the country that has made the most seizures of precursors and pre-precursors of this drug in the world during 2020, in addition to the fact that in recent years has reported a 218% increase in the number of people seeking medical treatment for the use of this psychostimulant.

For Sofía Díaz Mencio, project coordinator at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico, this is a "significant increase" in seizures in a context of global growth.

“Before, 84 countries reported seizures of methamphetamine, and now, 117 countries have done so,” she says in a conversation with this newspaper.

Seizures of amphetamine-type drugs in the Americas were between 2016 and 2020 close to 130 tons.

Of which the majority was methamphetamine seized in North American countries, while Central America seized mainly amphetamines and South America and the Caribbean, ecstasy.

“Quantities of methamphetamine seized in North America reached a record high in 2020. Data on individual drug seizures do not indicate any reduction in drug trafficking activities or changes in trafficking patterns in North America during the period 2020- 2021″, says the document.

The United States and Mexico are among the countries that registered a greater increase in seizures of this substance.

According to the report, the expansion of this drug in the region is also supported by the seizures of P-2-P, a chemical substance that has become "the most important in a recipe to produce methamphetamine that has become very popular in the last time”, says Díaz Mencio.

That precursor, or even substances that are used to produce it, have been mainly confiscated in Mexico.

“P-2-P seizures have not been limited to any continent.

The largest amounts seized in 2020 were reported by Mexico, which also seized the largest amounts of phenylacetic acid, used in the manufacture of P-2-P," the report reads.

The expansion of the market is also seen in the increase in consumption.

“A higher level of heavy methamphetamine use, compared to the use of other amphetamines, is clearly visible in Mexico, where 29,680 methamphetamine users were in drug treatment in 2020, compared to just 727 amphetamine users,” it says. The report.

The UN, which worked alongside federal institutions such as the Ministry of the Interior or the National Commission against Addictions, has ensured that the Mexican government reported that amphetamines had recently become the drug most frequently detected in people who died in drug-related context.

“In toxicological analyzes of people who died presumably from a drug-related cause, which is not always done, methamphetamine was the most frequently detected drug,” explains Díaz Mencio, who assures that “it is not surprising” because it is one of the the most widely used drugs in Mexico.

Among the figures that the country has reported, there is one that alerts specialists: that of medical attention regarding the different drugs.

“Mexico reported a 218% increase in the number of users in treatment for amphetamine-type drugs (mainly methamphetamine) as a primary drug between 2013 and 2020, with revenues from methamphetamine exceeding even alcohol,” the report states.

Díaz Mencio specifies that it is understood that the consumption figures are much higher since normally "barely one in 11 drug users require treatment."

The data comes, in part, from the analysis of wastewater that also shows an expansion of consumption within the national territory.

Before, it was concentrated on the border with the United States, one of the historically most affected areas, and where consumption by young people, migrants and sex workers has been documented.

Now that indicator is no longer limited to that particular region, but rather covers a large part of the country.

The global report provides new data on cities and countries that have legalized marijuana, and warns that there has been an "increase in use, a lower perception of consumption risk, mainly among young people, and that the products have a higher THC content [which has the main psychoactive effect] and less of CBD [substance that relieves sensations of anxiety, inflammation or pain]”, says Díaz Mencio.

For Mexico, the cannabis data that has been recorded indicates “a sharp decline in seizures as higher-potency cannabis became widely available in the United States and organized criminal groups shifted their focus to other drugs.”

As for the cocaine market, the United Nations warns that the main routes continue to flow from the Andes to North America and Eastern and Central Europe.

The organization ensures that this market has continued to grow in recent times despite the covid-19 pandemic.

Confiscations of this substance over the last 20 years have not stopped growing, reaching 1,424 tons in 2020.

The bulk of these seizures were made throughout the American continent, with Colombia, the United States, Ecuador and Brazil leading the way.

The figures also show a trend of global geographic expansion of the cocaine market.

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