"Char" for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE
WRITTEN BY: ALEJANDRO MOJARDIN
JUNE 4, 2024
A Federal Health report states that the entity is among those with the highest consumption of the synthetic drug.
Sinaloa is among the states with the highest consumption of fentanyl, along with Baja California, Chihuahua, and Sonora.
The Federal Health Ministry's Report on the Demand and Supply of Fentanyl indicates that Mexico has gone from being a transit country to a country where consumption is growing, mainly along the border.
The four states with the highest consumption are also where the largest seizures have been made.
The document points out that the background of fentanyl consumption comprises from 2013 to 2017, a period in which cases of consumers were occasionally received in treatment centers, and from 2018 the number of cases grew steadily, counting in tens until 2020 and in hundreds since 2021.
These cases have been concentrated primarily in northern entities of the country such as Baja California, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora, he notes.
Between 2013 and 2017, he mentions, 14 people received addiction treatment and by 2021 there were 184, in 2022 they totaled 333 and in 2023 there were 430.
It details that from June 2023 to January 2024, seven people were treated in emergency rooms in Baja California for fentanyl intoxication, six in Sinaloa and two in Sonora.
The study points out that objective data on fentanyl deaths in Mexico are insufficient so far, so the number of overdose deaths may be underestimated.
The document shows statistics of deaths due to opioid consumption that have an upward trend since 2017 and in which, it considers, fentanyl could be involved.
Since 2014 in the country 114 people have died from opioid overdose mainly in Baja California with 28 cases, Chihuahua with 22 cases and Sonora with 38 cases; while in Sinaloa there were four.
The SS points out that since 2017 they identified the first cases of consumption, through narrations of the use of a substance called China White, which was believed to be heroin possibly combined with fentanyl, and given these first references, the use of this psychoactive substance has been studied with the aim of better assessing the impact on the health of those who consume it.
Many deaths have been attributed to the use of illicit fentanyl, whose extreme potency and capacity to be produced in a very short time have contributed to significant concerns regarding its abuse and illegal trafficking in the north of the region, he mentions.
He details that, according to the National Effort to Combat Drug Trafficking and Public Security Activities, the main states in which fentanyl has been seized are Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa and Sonora; most of them are located in the northern border, except Chiapas which is located in the southern border.
These seizures show the possible routes followed by fentanyl trafficking in Mexico, one that runs along the Pacific coast of Mexico and also involves the Baja California peninsula, and another that possibly runs from the center of the country, all heading towards the United States, it indicates.
The report considers that illicit fentanyl trafficking has turned out to be a very attractive and lucrative business, as the cartels do not require land, workers to take care of the plantations or wait for cultivation times, and the economic investment tends to be much lower and profits much higher.
“This incursion has taken place in a context marked by continuous changes in organized crime in Mexico, in which there is greater competition between groups that fight for trafficking territories and plazas, generating increasingly violent environments. The main conflicts in national territory are between the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel, who are in dispute over fentanyl distribution routes to the United States,” he said.
He mentions that the main strategies to address the consumption, production and trafficking of fentanyl are focused on the areas of health and public safety and recognizes that it is essential to expand the national response to research into the phenomenon, so that prevention, treatment and harm reduction policies and programs are based on scientific evidence.
One of the most important current challenges is that the information available in health systems revolves around general categories, such as opioids, and it is still difficult to differentiate those data that correspond specifically to the use of fentanyl.
It details that it is necessary to promote and maintain a strategy with a comprehensive approach that includes not only health and safety, but also social, economic and political components in the action plans, addressing structural factors that have a direct impact on substance use, such as socioeconomic inequality, lack of educational and employment opportunities, access to and availability of psychoactive substances, and contexts of violence and insecurity.
Article published on June 02, 2024, in the 1114 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.
