Mexico Drug Addiction

For many years, Mexico has been a well-known producer of drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin, with the United States as its primary market. In the 1990s, the pattern of trafficking shifted as Columbian cocaine manufacturers tired of losing product and personnel in drug enforcement seizures, and handed off cocaine trafficking into the U.S. to the Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

Using the channels of smuggling and distribution that already existed, the Mexican drug trafficking organizations became stronger, poly-drug trafficking organizations. Cocaine that used to be shuttled to the U.S. via boats in the Caribbean was now sneaked through ports of entry in southern California or Texas in combination with other drugs, or was airlifted across the border.

As the new millennium rolled around, the patterns of drug trafficking continued to change. The war on drugs on the U.S. side escalated and several of the top drug cartel leaders were arrested or killed. These openings at the top led to turf wars that have killed more than 7,000 people - most of them federal or local police or drug traffickers, but too many being innocent bystanders. Particularly in the Tijuana area and Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, the violence and body count were high.

Border security increased after September 11, 2001. Increased investment in surveillance and monitoring meant that it was harder to get illicit drugs into the United States. Some U.S. regions would report shortages in the cocaine supply in particular. This meant that some traffickers turned to their own population to peddle their wares. As a result, addiction within Mexico began to rise.