Consumption Of Fentanyl, The Drug That Is 50 Times Stronger Than Heroin, Grows In Northern Mexico

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Activists charge that the government does not care about drug users because they are homeless people; they also warn underreporting of consumption and death

In Tijuana, Baja California, Raquel receives a dose of methamphetamine combined with fentanyl, which her boyfriend injects into her neck vein.

Raquel has come close to dying twice; the first with a 30-milliliter dose that was put into her nose and the second time, with another that she injected herself into a vein in her neck.

"You don't feel anything, you just leave, you let yourself go into a deep sleep," says the 24-year-old Chihuahuan woman, based in Tijuana, Baja California, who just six months ago began injecting herself with a mixture of powdered fentanyl with dissolved methamphetamine in saline solution.

She knows he uses fentanyl, a drug 50 times stronger than heroin, linked to the majority of overdose deaths in the United States. She does it because it is a cheap and powerful drug. Raquel's name was changed for her safety.

In the United States, an optimal market for fentanyl was created by the excess of opiates that were legally prescribed, such as oxycontin. Over time, these consumers looked for legal or illegal ways to obtain them.

In Tijuana, fentanyl has hooked heroin users who use the drug mixed with other substances such as methamphetamine. A significant number of these people are deported from the United States, where they live on the streets and face diseases caused by injecting drug use, such as HIV or hepatitis C.

Interviewed activists accuse that Mexico lacks precise figures on deaths from overdoses; however, the Red Cross and the Baja California Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) agree on an increase in deaths.

Data records from the Red Cross in Tijuana make the increase clear.

In the first four months of the last four years, overdose deaths grew. In 2019 there were nine; in 2020, seven; in 2021, 13 and in 2022, 24.

César González Vaca, director of the state Semefo, explains that as of 2017 they have detected a sustained increase in deaths that, according to the clinical picture, are due to overdose. However, they do not do the tests and cannot catalog or record anything in this manner.

“In 2017 it was where it rose in Tijuana. From 2017 backwards, on average there were 400 to 500 (deaths due to overdoses), it fluctuated around there. As of 2017 it was double. Almost 900 and from then on 900, a thousand, a thousand 200 and it hasn't gone down anymore”, explains González Vaca.

Jaime Arredondo, academic and activist from the civil organization Verter, affirms that in terms of overdoses in Baja California "we have a health crisis that does not want to be recognized."

Activists, academics and authorities agree that this state is where there is more consumption of fentanyl mixed with other drugs. According to the National Commission Against Addictions (Conadic), this happens because of its proximity to the United States.

Although the Federation does not have an updated record that can be accessed, a review of journalistic notes shows that between 2020 and 2022 at least 70 people have died from overdoses linked to the use of fentanyl in Monterrey and García, Nuevo León; San Luis Rio Colorado and Nogales, Sonora; Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California; Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Culiacán, Sinaloa.

The Mexican Observatory of Mental Health and Drug Consumption, which depends on the Conadic, manages a registry of deaths derived from the use of opiates, but its count is only 105 deaths in the country, which occurred from 2011 to 2020.

'These are people the government doesn't care about'

In Baja California, civil organizations feel alone in the fight against overdoses and their associated diseases. They operate without public resources, with international donations and in an adverse context where the Army and the National Guard lead a constant harassment of drug users.

Prevencasa A.C., and Integración Social Verter, two civil associations that have worked in Tijuana and Mexicali since 2004, carry out strategies such as the exchange of syringes to reduce the spread of diseases, medical programs, free access to showers and drinking water, as well as testing of substances to detect fentanyl and warn the consumer of its effects.

They have insisted on the shortage of naloxone, the drug that can reverse a fentanyl overdose, and that in Mexico is legally restricted.

“[Fentanyl] is being consumed by Mexicans, but they are not interested in this community because they’ve homeless. They are not voters, they are people that the government does not care about,” criticizes Alfonso Chávez, coordinator of Prevencasa programs.

"What fentanyl does is it has a very strong high, but it's very short-lived, so you have to re-inject more, it creates more dependency and more damage to your body," he continues.

Drug users say they are aware that they use fentanyl. They use it because it is cheap and more powerful. It is 50 times stronger than heroin.

Activists charge that the National Guard now harasses consumers, seizes and destroys new syringes and confiscates naloxone, a medicine that the associations receive from other organizations in the United States and Canada, where it is distributed free of charge.

“It is a setback of more than a decade of drug policies. The government criminalizes more, stigmatizes more and supports less. It is a deadly combo”, says Jaime Arredondo Sánchez, academic and founder of Verter.

Conadic admits that there is still much to be done to match the health strategy with the security strategy; however, he states that they are promoting legislative changes so that naloxone is no longer a restricted drug.

"Most likely, before the end of this year it will be declassified and become a free-sale medicine in pharmacies," says Hugo González, head of services at Conadic.

The fentanyl triangle

In May 2013, the first fentanyl seizure was registered in Mexico, in Baja California Sur. From there, the presence of the drug has increased by 500% between 2015 and 2022.

According to figures from the Ministry of National Defense obtained through transparency and communications, from August 2015 to July 2022, 2,479 kilos of fentanyl, 10,730,000 pills and 3,817 vials of liquid fentanyl have been seized.

Heading the list are Culiacán, Sinaloa; Tijuana and Ensenada, Baja California, and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, which form a triangle of production and transfer of fentanyl.

In these states, where the Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation and Arellano Félix cartels mainly operate, 99% of fentanyl seizures are concentrated in kilos and pills.

From 2013 and until July 4, Tijuana was the municipality where the most kilos of fentanyl had been seized, but a month ago it was surpassed by the municipality of Culiacán.

"There is a growing phenomenon: greater production, more precursors, greater logistical capacity of criminal organizations in the production of the substance," explains academic Josué González Torres.

The researcher who prepared the document Fentanyl in Mexico, confiscation of shipments, for the Security Analysis Collective with Democracy A.C., comments that this drug is easier to produce and transport, and generates enormous profits, which is why it has revolutionized production of synthetic drugs.

"You can produce a pill for pennies on the dollar and sell it for $10 to $20," he notes.

According to reports from the United States Department of Justice, a kilo of fentanyl could represent a profit for the cartels of between 1.2 and 1.9 million dollars.

From 2019 to July 2022, US Customs and Border Protection seized 12,348 kilos of fentanyl. According to this dependency, 60% of the fentanyl that is seized in that country enters through San Diego, California, bordering Tijuana, Baja California.

The same phenomenon occurs in Sonora and its border with Arizona, where 25% of all the fentanyl seized in the United States enters.

Powdered fentanyl is sold in small blue bags.

Returning home

Raquel and her boyfriend Ramón live in a room in the north of Tijuana.

The area is stigmatized by drug use, violence generated by drug dealing, prostitution and the presence of hundreds of people who are homeless; they sleep on the sidewalks on cardboards and old blankets.

In this area, attached to the border wall, stories are heard of deported migrants who return to Mexico without money or a home and stay there in the hope of crossing again.

Such is the story of Raquel, who in recent years has traveled from Chihuahua to Sinaloa, and from Sinaloa to Jalisco. In this last place she studied Psychopedagogy, but due to the lack of resources she sought to cross the border. She was later deported to Tijuana and upon arrival she tried fentanyl because that is what is sold on the streets.

The young woman has a huge mark on her right arm that looks like a third degree burn. It's the memory of the second overdose.

To reverse the overdose, her boyfriend Ramón, his name was also changed, injected salt water into her arm, a remedy that consumers are used to, but that with fentanyl has become less effective. Salt causes a surge of adrenaline that can reverse the effect, but it generates wounds and skin infections that can be fatal.

Now Raquel plans to return to her land. Her father has offered to help her with her relocation expenses and even support her boyfriend to find a job.

While Raquel tells her plans, Ramón prepares a dose of fentanyl with methamphetamine and injects it into a vein in her neck. She puffs out her cheeks to endure the pain.

As soon as the substance enters her body her words and movements become slow and she then stumbles as she walks down the sidewalk.

"It's pure fulfillment," she says of her addiction that she wants to let go of.

El Universal