Mexico Metropolis, Mexico – Fentanyl overdose-related deaths have elevated by 636% in northwestern Mexico prior to now three years, in accordance with a research revealed this week by the non-profit Elementa DDHH.
The report appears to be like into drug utilization in northwestern Mexico, particularly in Tijuana and Mexicali, probably the most populous cities within the border state of Baja California.
As an artificial drug, fentanyl is a less expensive various to heroin. Its ease of manufacturing and trafficking has nearly ended poppy cultivation in Mexico and has displaced heroin because the opioid of alternative by addicts.
The report cites that the primary case ever reported of fentanyl consumption in Baja California was in 2018, and by 2019, three-quarters of medication offered in Tijuana and Mexicali as heroin have been laced with fentanyl. By 2023, 100% of medication offered within the area examined constructive for fentanyl.
Positioned on Mexico’s border with California, Baja California has changed into a strategic enclave for drug trafficking as its location is pivotal for cartels pushing narcotics into their largest market, the U.S., and growing violence and arranged crime presence is a end result.
By 2024, Baja California was the fifth most harmful state in Mexico. Its murder fee, 56 murders for each 100,000 inhabitants, is the third highest within the nation with over 77% of its homicides occurring in Tijuana, a border metropolis with 2.2 million inhabitants.
Furthermore, enforced disappearances within the state have elevated by 240.4% from 2015 to 2022.
The state’s location is essential not just for drug trafficking but in addition for home and international immigration. Baja California has the very best inhabitants of individuals of international origin in Mexico, and is the primary return level for Mexican immigrants expatriated from the US, accounting for 52.4% of all deported Mexicans in 2021.
In actual fact, the overwhelming majority of fentanyl customers are immigrant males who’ve tried to cross the U.S. border or have been deported by American authorities, in accordance with the report.
Within the U.S., practically 70% of the over 100,000 drug overdoses reported final 12 months are attributed to artificial opioids like fentanyl. The manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl has changed into an pressing menace to Mexico’s northern neighbor.
Through the first months of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, Mexican authorities seized 1,252 kilograms and 738,900 drugs of fentanyl.
Furthermore, beginning in January 2025, Sheinbaum’s administration has began a preventive marketing campaign to teach Mexicans on the hazards of fentanyl consumption. The “Keep away from medication. Fentanyl kills,” marketing campaign is broadcast on TV and radio, and its program is taught in colleges all through the nation.
“Fentanyl in our nation is just not actually an issue, there may be not a disaster as there may be in the US, in some cities in the US, in some cities in Canada, primarily, however we are not looking for it to achieve our nation and subsequently, we began this marketing campaign towards fentanyl and to make folks conscious of what fentanyl means and the harm it will probably trigger to well being,” mentioned Sheinbaum at a press convention on January.
