Methamphetamine is an epidemic happening here in the US. People can deny it or turn a blind eye all they want but the facts are there. 1389 pounds were seized in 2016 up from only 227 pounds in 2015. An astronomical 500 percent rise from 5 years ago. This is from the Arizona border alone. It is estimated that this number is only about 10 percent of the actual amount being smuggled. When you do the math, the number of pounds actually making it here is staggering.
(recovering addict smoking weed before an interview)
Crystel meth is a scary drug. It is often called better than coke on top of being longer lasting and cheaper. It is highly addictive and can destroy lives in the blink of an eye. It is for these qualities alone that the cartels in Juarez Mexico have attempted to ban the use and sales of the drug among the city with threats of violence to those opposed. They use the term "cleansing" and claim to cleanse the city of the dealers of users when they can.
(outside of the facility that was paid a visit)
Though they have tried to ban the drug, addicts will be addicts. The amount of people using the drug has drastically risen, doing the same thing to the Juarez community that it is doing to the communities here in the states. It ruins lives from every walk in life, from the barrios of the poor to the mansions on the beach. It is also causing problems between the sinaloa cartel and the Juarez cartel as they struggle for control of the city since it has ideal trafficking characteristics.
The problem with controlling the drug is that there is so much of it from the cartels cooking that it was only a matter of time before it leaked to the city. Violence in the city has also seen a dramatic rise, almost as bad as the drug war in 2011.
The Sinaloa Cartel controls the southeast of Juarez and the crime driven Valle de Juarez just south of the border, not too far from El Paso. These are the hotspots of addiction, although it is growing rapidly throughout the state.
The Juarez Cartel control the metro area, from the middle class neighborhoods and high end shopping malls to the slums of Anapra bordering New Mexico.
Authorities blame the rise of murders on the Juarez Cartels fight to keep meth out of their area. The 500 murder count hasent been this high since 2012. At the peak of the drug war the murder count topped 3000 , insane compared to today. One of the issues the cartels have is the fact that meth is synthetic. The cartels usually selling marijuana and coke have strict policies against synthetic drugs, and will do what they can to prevent them. Another big factor ( most likely THE factor ) is that when people that usually only use marijuana and coke try meth ( a 2 dollar bag will last about 2 or 3 days ) they get hooked, abandoning their previous habit and in turn taking profits from the criminal enterprise.
(one of the NA groups held daily)
These reasons also bring conflict since not all of the cartels feel the same. While some try and stop it , other factions use this as an opportunity. They begin dealing meth, causing even more friction between the cartels.
The criminals even try to use text messages as a way to warn anyone ignoring the ban. One of the texts read that anyone on the streets after 11 are obvious dealers or users and will be killed. The "cleansing" occurs from 11 pm to sunrise. Since cellphones are the only way to communicate between dealers and users ( as well as dealer to dealer and user to user ) cartels confiscate cell phones then go through the phone books and use the numbers as the recipients to these threats.
Journalists visited a rehab facility in Juarez to interview some of the rehabilitating residents. These places arent cheap, up to 28 dollars a week and a 70 dollar up front enrollment fee. This is the equivalent of what a factory worker gets every week for his hard labor and back breaking work. Out of the 35 that reside here , 28 of them are meth addicts.
According to one of the workers there, the meth use has been a problem only a short time. The majority of the users favored cocaine since meth wasent easy to find. In an interview taken with one of the medical staff there, meth addicts are the roughest ones to deal with. He stated that meths withdrawal could take up to two months sometimes, an eternity compared to heroins 3 or 4. This is attributed to the fact that with meth it's the nervous system that takes the hit, so it messes with a lot of the senses.
There was a time when the Mexican government actually funded a program to help recovering criminals, similar to the probation and parole programs we have here. Those days have passed. Now it's for the wealthy citizens, leaving the rest to get lost in the sea of addicted and poor. It is a safe assumption that since meth is just now starting to become common in the rehabs that this is only the beginning of this meth movement. The worse is yet to come. Thanks for reading.
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(pictures and research from abqnews.com and borderlandbeat.com)