NCJ Number
202249
Date Published
2003
Length
56 pages
Annotation
This document provides an overview of the drug situation in Mexico.
Abstract
Historically, Mexico has been a drug producing (cannabis and heroin) and transit (cocaine) country. Crimes committed in drug trafficking have caused severe problems, including corruption, money laundering, and violence in connection with organized crime. Local consumption has also become a serious problem during the last two decades. Public and political awareness of this fact has increased. Lately the Mexican Government has been strongly committed to battle this problem, resulting in the mass arrests of prominent drug lords from the Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Gulf drug cartels. This has not decreased drug trafficking. On the contrary, seizures of cocaine, opium, and ecstasy have increased. Mexico continues to be a major source of cannabis for North America. Illicit cultivation occurs on small fields in remote areas, mainly on public land in the western Sierra Madre Mountains. Estimates of illegal drug crop cultivation are not published by the government. Crop eradication figures indicate that, in 2001, 15,350 hectares of opium poppy and 33,000 hectares of marijuana were eradicated. While cocaine/crack, heroin, and methamphetamine consumption has risen, the consumption of marijuana seems to be stable. The abuse of inhalants has decreased. The party drug scene, with its use of ecstasy, has become part of the lifestyle of Mexico’s youth in the major cities. Until recently, the typical drug consumer in Mexico was a young male living in an urban setting. Data from school surveys in Mexico City indicate that consumption among female students has recently increased at a faster pace than that among male students. The age of initiation for drug abuse has declined. Drug consumption still remains concentrated in the big cities and in the northern part of the country. But there are indications that drug consumption is slowly penetrating rural areas as well. 14 tables, 9 charts, 2 annexes