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Monday, August 22, 2022

Consumption Of Fentanyl, The Drug That Is 50 Times Stronger Than Heroin, Grows In Northern Mexico

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Activists charge that the government does not care about drug users because they are homeless people; they also warn underreporting of consumption and death

In Tijuana, Baja California, Raquel receives a dose of methamphetamine combined with fentanyl, which her boyfriend injects into her neck vein.

Raquel has come close to dying twice; the first with a 30-milliliter dose that was put into her nose and the second time, with another that she injected herself into a vein in her neck.

"You don't feel anything, you just leave, you let yourself go into a deep sleep," says the 24-year-old Chihuahuan woman, based in Tijuana, Baja California, who just six months ago began injecting herself with a mixture of powdered fentanyl with dissolved methamphetamine in saline solution.

She knows he uses fentanyl, a drug 50 times stronger than heroin, linked to the majority of overdose deaths in the United States. She does it because it is a cheap and powerful drug. Raquel's name was changed for her safety.

In the United States, an optimal market for fentanyl was created by the excess of opiates that were legally prescribed, such as oxycontin. Over time, these consumers looked for legal or illegal ways to obtain them.

In Tijuana, fentanyl has hooked heroin users who use the drug mixed with other substances such as methamphetamine. A significant number of these people are deported from the United States, where they live on the streets and face diseases caused by injecting drug use, such as HIV or hepatitis C.

Interviewed activists accuse that Mexico lacks precise figures on deaths from overdoses; however, the Red Cross and the Baja California Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) agree on an increase in deaths.

Data records from the Red Cross in Tijuana make the increase clear.

In the first four months of the last four years, overdose deaths grew. In 2019 there were nine; in 2020, seven; in 2021, 13 and in 2022, 24.

César González Vaca, director of the state Semefo, explains that as of 2017 they have detected a sustained increase in deaths that, according to the clinical picture, are due to overdose. However, they do not do the tests and cannot catalog or record anything in this manner.

“In 2017 it was where it rose in Tijuana. From 2017 backwards, on average there were 400 to 500 (deaths due to overdoses), it fluctuated around there. As of 2017 it was double. Almost 900 and from then on 900, a thousand, a thousand 200 and it hasn't gone down anymore”, explains González Vaca.

Jaime Arredondo, academic and activist from the civil organization Verter, affirms that in terms of overdoses in Baja California "we have a health crisis that does not want to be recognized."

Activists, academics and authorities agree that this state is where there is more consumption of fentanyl mixed with other drugs. According to the National Commission Against Addictions (Conadic), this happens because of its proximity to the United States.

Although the Federation does not have an updated record that can be accessed, a review of journalistic notes shows that between 2020 and 2022 at least 70 people have died from overdoses linked to the use of fentanyl in Monterrey and García, Nuevo León; San Luis Rio Colorado and Nogales, Sonora; Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California; Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Culiacán, Sinaloa.

The Mexican Observatory of Mental Health and Drug Consumption, which depends on the Conadic, manages a registry of deaths derived from the use of opiates, but its count is only 105 deaths in the country, which occurred from 2011 to 2020.
'These are people the government doesn't care about'

In Baja California, civil organizations feel alone in the fight against overdoses and their associated diseases. They operate without public resources, with international donations and in an adverse context where the Army and the National Guard lead a constant harassment of drug users.

Prevencasa A.C., and Integración Social Verter, two civil associations that have worked in Tijuana and Mexicali since 2004, carry out strategies such as the exchange of syringes to reduce the spread of diseases, medical programs, free access to showers and drinking water, as well as testing of substances to detect fentanyl and warn the consumer of its effects.

They have insisted on the shortage of naloxone, the drug that can reverse a fentanyl overdose, and that in Mexico is legally restricted.

“[Fentanyl] is being consumed by Mexicans, but they are not interested in this community because they’ve homeless. They are not voters, they are people that the government does not care about,” criticizes Alfonso Chávez, coordinator of Prevencasa programs.

"What fentanyl does is it has a very strong high, but it's very short-lived, so you have to re-inject more, it creates more dependency and more damage to your body," he continues.

Drug users say they are aware that they use fentanyl. They use it because it is cheap and more powerful. It is 50 times stronger than heroin.

Activists charge that the National Guard now harasses consumers, seizes and destroys new syringes and confiscates naloxone, a medicine that the associations receive from other organizations in the United States and Canada, where it is distributed free of charge.

“It is a setback of more than a decade of drug policies. The government criminalizes more, stigmatizes more and supports less. It is a deadly combo”, says Jaime Arredondo Sánchez, academic and founder of Verter.

Conadic admits that there is still much to be done to match the health strategy with the security strategy; however, he states that they are promoting legislative changes so that naloxone is no longer a restricted drug.

"Most likely, before the end of this year it will be declassified and become a free-sale medicine in pharmacies," says Hugo González, head of services at Conadic.

The fentanyl triangle

In May 2013, the first fentanyl seizure was registered in Mexico, in Baja California Sur. From there, the presence of the drug has increased by 500% between 2015 and 2022.

According to figures from the Ministry of National Defense obtained through transparency and communications, from August 2015 to July 2022, 2,479 kilos of fentanyl, 10,730,000 pills and 3,817 vials of liquid fentanyl have been seized.

Heading the list are Culiacán, Sinaloa; Tijuana and Ensenada, Baja California, and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, which form a triangle of production and transfer of fentanyl.

In these states, where the Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation and Arellano Félix cartels mainly operate, 99% of fentanyl seizures are concentrated in kilos and pills.

From 2013 and until July 4, Tijuana was the municipality where the most kilos of fentanyl had been seized, but a month ago it was surpassed by the municipality of Culiacán.

"There is a growing phenomenon: greater production, more precursors, greater logistical capacity of criminal organizations in the production of the substance," explains academic Josué González Torres.

The researcher who prepared the document Fentanyl in Mexico, confiscation of shipments, for the Security Analysis Collective with Democracy A.C., comments that this drug is easier to produce and transport, and generates enormous profits, which is why it has revolutionized production of synthetic drugs.

"You can produce a pill for pennies on the dollar and sell it for $10 to $20," he notes.

According to reports from the United States Department of Justice, a kilo of fentanyl could represent a profit for the cartels of between 1.2 and 1.9 million dollars.

From 2019 to July 2022, US Customs and Border Protection seized 12,348 kilos of fentanyl. According to this dependency, 60% of the fentanyl that is seized in that country enters through San Diego, California, bordering Tijuana, Baja California.

The same phenomenon occurs in Sonora and its border with Arizona, where 25% of all the fentanyl seized in the United States enters.

Powdered fentanyl is sold in small blue bags.

Returning home

Raquel and her boyfriend Ramón live in a room in the north of Tijuana.

The area is stigmatized by drug use, violence generated by drug dealing, prostitution and the presence of hundreds of people who are homeless; they sleep on the sidewalks on cardboards and old blankets.

In this area, attached to the border wall, stories are heard of deported migrants who return to Mexico without money or a home and stay there in the hope of crossing again.

Such is the story of Raquel, who in recent years has traveled from Chihuahua to Sinaloa, and from Sinaloa to Jalisco. In this last place she studied Psychopedagogy, but due to the lack of resources she sought to cross the border. She was later deported to Tijuana and upon arrival she tried fentanyl because that is what is sold on the streets.

The young woman has a huge mark on her right arm that looks like a third degree burn. It's the memory of the second overdose.

To reverse the overdose, her boyfriend Ramón, his name was also changed, injected salt water into her arm, a remedy that consumers are used to, but that with fentanyl has become less effective. Salt causes a surge of adrenaline that can reverse the effect, but it generates wounds and skin infections that can be fatal.

Now Raquel plans to return to her land. Her father has offered to help her with her relocation expenses and even support her boyfriend to find a job.

While Raquel tells her plans, Ramón prepares a dose of fentanyl with methamphetamine and injects it into a vein in her neck. She puffs out her cheeks to endure the pain.

As soon as the substance enters her body her words and movements become slow and she then stumbles as she walks down the sidewalk.

"It's pure fulfillment," she says of her addiction that she wants to let go of.

76 comments:

  1. When fentanyl hits non-US countries, we should maybe expect to see real policy changes considering no other country is as stubborn and unwilling to change as America even when fentanyl is ripping through.

    Makes me kind of wonder though because I thought you could sort of get normal opioids almost over the counter in Mexico so I’m not sure how fent could even catch on there unless you’re talking about it just being that much cheaper. No one with access to better opioids would choose fent.

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    1. 12:49 Perhaps in some countries increased domestic usage would prompt action, but not in Mexico as long as the cartels hold so much power. The cartels don't care whether their customers are foreign or domestic, as long as the money comes in and they hold onto their power.

      Opiates haven't been OTC in Mexico for a very long time, if ever. Things have really been tightened up for legal pharmacy purchase without prescription over the past decade+ or so, but some pharmacies will let some go out the back door, so to speak. Also much easier for docs to prescribe in Mexico. But if you're an addict looking to get high, you're going to buy fentanyl because it's cheaper than pharmaceuticals.

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    2. 1:20 Thats correct. In fact, in some places the running cartel does not allows certain drugs. Is most places of La linea, like Casas Grandes, no other drugs are allowed than Marihuana and Cocaine.

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    3. @1:20 Yeah the fentanyl usage rates of Mexico will probably never top the usage rates in more westernized countries like America and Canada either. Once fent hits Europe though I will expect to see some policies centered around regulation starting to take effect. I think Canada’s already starting with programs like this.

      As for getting opioids in Mexican pharmacies, I’m aware that you need a prescription even over there but I always thought it was like stupid easy to get a prescription to the degree of being basically or almost OTC. Is this not true?

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    4. 1:36 not for opiates. I was on methadone for a while In Mexico and I needed a special prescription granted by the state to get my medicine. It is super regulated. You can get xanax or tafil over the counter tho but opiates are super rare in mexico. Even if you have cancer or a terminal disease they will rather put you on benzos than opiates.

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    5. 1:36, this is NOT true and your new or your being sarcastic. Gangs or various plaza bosses publicly say "anyone caught selling meth or now fent, is punished. We will not allow that stuff to be sold, it is bad stuff...complete and utter crap. Propaganda 101.Money wins not concern for their neighborhood.

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    6. Interesting and as a former a hospice worker, horrifying but not surprising

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    7. 5:34 damn that’s crazy. If governments weren’t so strict about the most standard opiates we wouldn’t even have this fentanyl crisis in the first place.

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    8. 10:44 seriously though. Old fashioned opiates are really not bad and plant based primarily......

      2022 synthetics are the "devil's" drug not plants. Why don't people still make.amd sell OPIUM GUM???

      Excellent pain reliever, organic, eco-friendly and relatively none deadly

      Delete
  2. Great article the life of two junkies Raquel and the boyfriend, what future is there in Tijuana?
    If she were to make it to USA, I would not think she would drop the drug habit, once addicted I heard it's to come back to normal.

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    1. Well TJ does have a number of Iboga treatment centers. Even gringos come down from the states for these centers.

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    2. But I heard cartels shoot them up like Swiss cheese, on the ones that want to sober up. Wonder if SIR, is in one of those TJ treatment centers.

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    3. @2:59 Eh, I really doubt they’d do it at the Iboga ones but not completely sure.

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    4. 1:26
      Someone call Jorge Ramos from Chanelle 34

      Ramos should sponsor them, he has a mansion, I am sure, he will say Yes.

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    5. 259 SIR was in the treatment center but was caught in the kitchen playing with his pipi trying to make mayonesa so he got kicked out.

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    6. Ibogogaine is not as successful as it is touted to be. Not nearly. The Ibogaine treatments are offered to gringos who can afford lodgecamp for a week with a waterfall and faux shaman with a feather

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    7. 6:51 thats not how SIR got kicked out, they are not suppost to have any cell phones while at the rehab and SIR got caught kistering phones for the patients, one of the Guards caugh Sir and Sir tryed to bribe him with a free phone, he actually gave him a few choises the newest I phone, Android, Google pixel, the new RZR flip phone or the Tesla (which is not out yet) but the Guard refused and he got kicked out

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    8. 10:10 the rumor that I heard, is that he was using the phone making comments 24 hours a day, on BB website, writing gibberish stuff. They have him a second chance. Why you think he is not here that often.

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    9. @2:59
      It would really be funny if SIR, is spending his weeks, at a Tijuana Treatment Center. Hope he does not relapse.

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    10. @9:16 Yes they are.. Ibogaine is actually FAR more effective than it’s even as touted as. You’re looking at probably an 88% success rate compared to 5% with 12 Step.. There’s no other treatment that is even remotely close in terms of efficacy and success rates for addiction. Nothing even close.

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  3. I hope this is not the beginning of the end. Fentanyl literally turns people into zombies.

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    1. You people have overused the word ‘zombie’ so much that it’s pretty much lost all of its meaning.

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    2. It also kills them Mijo.

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    3. Zombie does have meaning.
      Sir was in a Zombie stage at one time or another.

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    4. 1:34 zombies is right it so sad people you know gone gone gone #DTES

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    5. 2:59 Mija thanks for telling us something we all know.

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    6. 6:56 speak for yourself 1:34 did not know

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    7. 6:50 So, you didn't know drugs kill especially fentanyl?

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    8. 7:41 see 1:34 did not know.

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  4. So. Fent w/ heroin, fent w/meth, fent w/ coca, any evidence fent w/ pot ?

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    1. I’ve heard some whisperings about stuff like that but never really looked into it. Seems very rare if anything and is probably a greater issue when it comes to vape oil cartridges rather than actual bud. The cartels I think produce most of their weed in California now though.

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    2. That's dumbass street dudes using the same scale to weigh both. No competent dealer is going to mix fent with pot.

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    3. 02:53 "what the fuck is a competent street dealer????" Dude for real. In the USA street weed is increasingly sprayed with fentanyl to make a $150 pound of Cali ditch weed "better"

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    4. 02:11 evidence is here you dumb ass motherfuker https://www.drugsdata.org/index.php?sort=DatePublishedU+desc&start=800&a=&search_field=-&m1=-1&m2=-1&datefield=tested&max=100#

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    5. A locochón I knew once mixed powdered chiva with mota, said he felt he was on a rollercoaster with the rush but was passing out. Fuck that shit
      Say no to drugs compas

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    6. 2:45 not its not you moron. People aren't "spraying" fent all over weed. 20 bucks a gram...fent is prolly 100 bucks a gram on the street. Ain't no doing that shit

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    7. 2:45 The hell are you talking about? There’s no such thing as “cali ditch weed”… ‘Ditch weed’ only exists in like 3 states in the Midwest.

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    8. 8:43 Ikr.. How does one even “spray” with fentanyl anyways

      A lot of things seem off about 2:45‘s post

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  5. Whatever happened to carfentanyl? I thought it was supposed to eclipse fentanyl.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Because there’s a limit

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    2. Carfentanyl is tooooo dangerous, when actually used it's severely watered down or it's extremely low dose.

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    3. Google it in news articles, it has happened but certainly not an often occurance

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  6. Snitchaloas are responsible for creating all the fent zombies in the USA. Mf’s are greedy as all hell. Couldn’t just stick to perico and broken windows. Bunch of snitch showoff rats

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    1. So 3:39 your saying other cartels including CJNG, don't touch fentanyl whatsoever. I find that hard to comprehend. Cartels will sell anything, including your Gramma to make a profit.

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    2. Ya callate perro envidioso di de donde Eres no seas cobarde

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    3. 4:47 ahi si no seas cobarde 🤣🤣🤣

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    4. @4:35 did you not read the articles right here about all the lab busts in Sinaloa?

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    5. 4:47 tu tampoco pones de dónde eres llorón

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    6. 10:51 you did not read 4:35 comment clearly please read it again before jumping to conclusions.

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    7. 6:48 my "conclusions" were reached by all the lab busts for fentanyl that happened in Sinaloa. I don't remember recently reading about fentanyl labs dismantled in Jalisco or Michoacán

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    8. 3:40 exactly 💯

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  7. 🇨🇦🇨🇦yes Canada started but people seek cheaper product for consumption.face it we lost the fight take a look #DTES

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    1. I too don't read comments with Canada flag

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  8. Yes they mix both fen+weed-benzo.you see 100 on asphalt in Vancouver..look what oxy leads to 1000 dead - gone in Vancouver -worldwide.but I assume you mexican act immune all was for us up north 🇨🇦🖤🖤🖤🇨🇦

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    1. I no longer read comments with Canada flag.

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    2. 6:45 LMAO 😂

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    3. Who want to read comments of the same guy, that shows the Canadian flag, in every comment he does. I am glad Canada girl does not do that.

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    4. 5:45 do you read comments with a cock in them?

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    5. 7:08 I want to read comments with donkey in them

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    6. 8:40 pues toma!!!🐴

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    7. 9:40 lol que Payaso

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    8. 12:39 ora un payaso? Pues Toma!!! 🤡

      Delete
  9. I want to see a Donkey Show in Tijuana, eat tacos. But people say it may not make it back alive.

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    1. Why would a cartel will kill an american for no reason?, what would they get?

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    2. For Ransom, of they don't pay they kill em.

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    3. Who would pay a ransom to kill americans for no reason?, that would make a lot of noise and lots of agencies involved. Thats never a good idea. Too much Hollywood movies.

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    4. In Tijuana? You don’t have to worry about cartels in Tijuana if you’re a tourist, just the shady ass cops who will shake you down and extort you.

      Don’t forget to go to the whorehouse.

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    5. 10:17 Well to be fair there are plenty of places in Mexico where you shouldn’t visit because cartels do kill people for seemingly no reason, but either way this doesn’t apply to TJ. You’ll be fine in Tijuana obviously as a tourist. You might just have your human rights violated by the police but you’re not gonna be killed by narcos unless you do something wild probably.

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    6. 2:23 you seem to have visited, the ladies of Tijuana.
      How much did you pay for around the world?

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    7. 5:23
      200 pesos + hotel room

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    8. 8:38 200 pesos? probably a cricosa with no teeth.

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  10. 30 milliliters?? You mean M30 pills?? They are Milligrams not Milliliters lol thats the measurement for liquid..

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  11. 12:49 opioids are not really readily available in Mexico except for Tramadol.

    7-10 years ago pain patients could still by oxycodone hydrocodone and morphine type meds but they are no longer made or sold in Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2:43 But in Mexico there is public health that covers any treatment, including pain killers. vs insurance companies in the US that at some point they refuse coverage and send people to the streets.

      Delete

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