Both police reports and media accounts have repeatedly highlighted the rising number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Mexico’s border region with the United States.
In 2020, 1,735 deaths from overdose of the so-called “synthetic heroin” were counted in Mexico, according to the Ministry of Health’s National Commission Against Addictions (Conadic).
Still, according to Insight Crime, “the number must be far lower than the actual figure, given the overcrowding in the country’s morgues.”
While the deaths are far from the record number of deaths reported in the United States, “drug users in Mexico are increasingly exposed to fentanyl, often without knowing it,” according to the organized crime research organization.
The U.S. agency’s report cites a survey of more than 1,000 public and private addiction treatment centers in Mexico and notes that the number of people who used fentanyl increased from just 24 between 2013 and 2018 to nearly 100 in 2019 and 2020.
The Milenio newspaper, based in the Mexican capital, revealed that 10 cases of fentanyl overdose are reported daily in the city of Mexicali alone, on the border with Calexico, California, in the northern state of Baja California.
“Fentanyl continues to wreak havoc on both sides of the border, even as Mexican law enforcement continues to seize the substance and the U.S. drug enforcement officials warn of the increasing distribution of adulterated pills containing the deadly synthetic opioid,” according to Insight Crime.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent and 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin. It is used both legally through prescription drugs and illegally.
It can be purchased clandestinely in powder form, as drops on blotter paper, eye drops, or tablets similar to other prescription opioids. Still, it is commonly mixed with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines.
One of the most concerning aspects of this use is that it can be purchased directly online through internet purchases delivered by courier services from China.
Fentanyl is frequently imported into Mexico from Hong Kong, Singapore, and China through the ports of Manzanillo in Colima state (west) and Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán state (south).
It is then processed in illegal laboratories, avoiding the risks of eradicating poppy cultivation, the raw material for heroin that has displaced it, since it yields more profit in less time and with less labor.
Two years ago, Verter Social Integration was the first civil society organization to determine that the heroin consumed on the northern border was not pure but laced with fentanyl.
Verter is the only NGO in Latin America that operates a “safe consumption space” as part of a program for injecting drug users to avoid dirty places, potentially infected material, and, above all, overdose cases.
Since 2019, it has taken care of more than 1,000 problems of this type, according to Lourdes Angulo, director and founder of the organization, which provides Milenio with clean pipes, new syringes, utensils for preparing and consuming drugs, and condoms.
However, their work is isolated and seems like a glass of water to alleviate the plight of thousands in the desert. That’s why experts believe government action and resources are needed to stem this dreaded wave of fentanyl overdoses that grows every day and threatens to snuff out thousands of lives.
One of the keys is “naxolone,” an injectable substance that Verter has been able to access to combat overdose deaths but that neither local authorities nor the Red Cross have access to.
“We are looking for someone to help us with medication for fentanyl and heroin,” Julio César Ramírez, local Red Cross coordinator, told the newspaper. He said there are “more people overdosing every day” and lamented that there is “no support from the government on this issue.”