Mexico, the main source of fentanyl trafficking to the United States

Mexico is “the main source” of fentanyl trafficking to U.Sinformed this Tuesday a commission on the opioids synthetic, which warns of more than 100,000 deaths from drug overdoses in the United States in 12 months.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid similar to morphine, is a drug prescribed for patients with severe pain, but it is also used illegally and mixed with other drugs.

Between June 2020 and May 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, more than twice as many as from car accidents or firearms, and about two-thirds of those deaths were due to synthetic opioids. warns the report of the Commission to Combat Trafficking in Synthetic Opioids.

Currently, the main cause of the opioid epidemic is the trafficking of fentanyl, up to 50 times more powerful than heroin and which mainly affects people between 18 and 45 years old, says the commission.

Synthetic drug trafficking not only kills tens of thousands of Americans each year, but “in Mexico, where the vast majority of these drugs are produced or transited, drug trafficking also contributes to corruption, challenges state security and fuels extreme violence,” he denounces.

Mexico is “the main source of this illicit fentanyl and its analogs” and the cartels manufacture it in clandestine laboratories, with ingredients (chemical precursors) coming largely from China, he warns.

He notes that traffickers conceal it in hard-to-detect amounts in packages, vehicles and people and smuggle it across the border into the United States. This makes it “highly profitable”, “more than heroin”.

According to the US government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, some traffickers sometimes mix fentanyl with other substances such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy (MDMA).

“They do it because a very small amount of fentanyl causes a high, which makes it a cheaper option. This is especially risky when people who use drugs are unaware that the substance they are using may contain fentanyl as an inexpensive but dangerous additive,” he explains on his website.

Just a few days ago, 22 people died in Argentina from the consumption of cocaine apparently mixed with an opioid.

Strategy

The overdose crisis in the United States has a difficult solution, according to the commission, which asks Mexico for “more efforts.”

“Partly for survival and partly because the trafficking problem transcends current law enforcement capacity, (Mexico) recently adopted a ‘hugs, not bullets’ approach to dealing with transnational criminal groups,” but the commission warns that this policy has not made it possible to deal with traffic problems “and more efforts will be needed”.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador believes that combating violence through violence does not work and promotes a policy of social programs.

In the face of this “public health emergency” and “national security challenge,” the Commission is aware that the efforts of the United States and Mexico “can interrupt the flow” across borders, but there will only be real progress if In addition, “the internal demand for these drugs is reduced.”

According to the Report on Drug Supply in the Americas published in 2021 by the Organization of American States (OAS), “there is no single substance that defines” the region.

The report warns of an increase in coca-based drugs and the danger of methamphetamines, in addition to describing the illicit trafficking of opioids to Canada and the United States as an “epidemic with fatal consequences.” Very little heroin is produced in the Americas and is shipped to markets in Asia or Europe.