61,000 Acres of Opium Poppies Grown in Mexico Between 2014-15 The Associated Press
go to original June 23, 2016

Risky Life of Mexican Poppy Farmers (Financial Times)

Mexico and the United Nations announced on June 22 the results of a new study that estimates opium poppies were planted on about 61,000 acres (24,800 hectares) in Mexico between 2014 and 2015.

The study is the first of its kind in Mexico, so authorities can’t compare the results with past years to determine whether opium growing has expanded.

The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico, Antonio Mazzitelli, said a second part of the study will try to estimate what the crop yield is in Mexico.

Mazzitelli said production is concentrated in nine states along Mexico’s Pacific coast, including Guerrero, Sinaloa and Nayarit.

The Mexican government said it had destroyed about the same acreage of poppy plantations in the same period, but it was unclear if that corresponded to the area mentioned in the study.

US authorities estimate that about half of the heroin seized there came from Mexico. Most of the rest of US heroin comes from South America.

Read the rest at Indian Express

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