Photo: RASHIDE FRIAS / AFP / Getty Images
MEXICO CITY – The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC in English) indicated this Saturday that Mexico has become one of the three largest opium producers in the world together with Afghanistan and Myanmar, a country that controls the 96% of global production, according to the most recent office report.
The report indicated that Mexico is the third country with the largest cultivation area dedicated to the poppy flower or “poppy” as it is also known.
In the framework of the International Day of Fight Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is being held this Saturday, the UNODC said that these positions are given despite the fact that another report by the UNODC and the Mexican Government, “México, Monitoreo de plantaíos de poppies 2018 – 2019 ”, Estimates that the area under cultivation of a map to 21. 500 hectares between July 2018 and June 2019.
“Poppy planting was reduced, for the first time, by 23% compared to previous monitoring period (2017 – 2018), which resulted in 28. 000 hectares ”, noted in the report.
However, the office added that potential dry rubber production “remained stable” , with a decrease of only 12 metric tons, which represents less than 2% compared to the period of 2017 – 2018, calculated in 450 metric tons of dry opium gum.
The report He also stated that the main cultivation points are located in the Sierra Madre Occidental and are concentrated in the so-called “Triángulo Dorado ”where the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango converge, as well as to the north of the state of Nayarit and in the Sierra Madre del Sur that encompasses the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca.
According to the World Drug Report 2021, since 2018 opium production has stabilized in the world with 7, 410 tons in 2020, following the sustained rise that had been achieved.
In addition to opium, the bureau said that Mexico has also become one of the countries where the most important seizures of fen tanyl.
The first place is from the United States, where fentanyl circulating on the streets has a purity degree of 9%. In that country, 92% of this substance was seized, and followed by Mexico, Canada and then Estonia and China, the latter with “comparatively small amounts seized.”
In addition, UNODC recorded an expansion in the methamphetamine market in both Asia and North America. “In the period 2015-2019, more than 90% of the methamphetamine seized worldwide was seized in those two regions “, he warned.
He explained that both in Mexico and in Asia “the manufacture of methamphetamine is linked to violence and insecurity.”
In North America, the increase in the traffic of this substance has “Coincided with the innovations of the drugs on offer: powders, crystals, solutions and tablets or counterfeit drugs,” he added.
“Additionally, North American manufacturers increasingly mix fentanyl with other drugs, which has contributed to the marked increase in deaths related to methamphetamine in recent years, “he stressed.
Through a resolution approved On December 7, 1987, Assembly Gene The UN ral decided to commemorate the “International Day Against Illicit Trafficking and Drug Abuse” every 26 June to strengthen action and cooperation in order to achieve a drug-free society.