Addiction Epidemic in US Creates Black Tar Heroin Boom in Mexico GlobalPost | |
go to original November 28, 2016 |
Mexico's deadly heroin problem (BBC News)
In Mexico, a profound change is occurring in the drug trade.
Where cartels once focused on smuggling marijuana and cocaine to the United States, they are now turning more and more to a new product: heroin.
The nonprofit Hudson Institute estimated the amount of pure heroin produced in Mexico in 2015 rose 67% over the 2014 numbers, and 170% over the estimates for 2013. Officials from both Mexico and the United States estimated at least a 50% jump in production in 2014, according to the New York Times.
The BBC’s Ian Pannell has found that Mexican supply networks for heroin are threatening to replace traditional smuggling routes from Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Pannell spent time with farmers, traffickers and users, and discovered that this new strategy reflects changing business conditions for illegal narcotics.
One factor is the declining profit margins for marijuana smuggling. As more of the U.S. decriminalizes the medical and recreational use of pot, local US production has increased exponentially. Illegally smuggled product from Mexico is unable to compete on either quality or price with this legally grown cannabis.
At the same time, the U.S. prescription opioid epidemic has driven a new spike in demand for heroin. One Mexican farmer described the change to Pannell as a simple one. “He is no longer growing the green flower [marijuana], he is growing the red flower [poppies], because that is where the money is."
Read the rest at PRI's The World
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