Drug Trade, Once Passing By, Takes Root in Mexico
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
New York Times
ZAMORA, Mexico — When she gets her high, Lupita Díaz says she enters a sweet illusion of peace, a respite from her pain and self-loathing. She lies on her back in a meadow on the edge of town here with other addicts, looks up at the stars and plays aimlessly on a battered blue harmonica.
Sunrise brings a crashing sensation. Her joints ache. Her mouth goes dry. She has cold sweats, jumps at shadows, hears voices in her head. She is willing, once again, to prostitute herself to get $5 for another hit of crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine. She has been an addict for years, and her slight body is nearly worn out. She gave away her two children to others to raise.
“There is nothing nice about being here,” she said, slurring her words and covering her watery eyes with pink sunglasses. “It feels ugly not to be with your children. Feels awful. It’s not what I want. It’s not what I like. But when I have money, I want the drugs.”
Ms. Díaz’s story of addiction is common enough in most of America’s big cities, but until a few years ago it was rare in central Mexico. That has changed. Today, Mexico is no longer just a transit country for drugs bound for the United States. It is a country of drug users as well.
As Mexican drug cartels have grown in power, they have begun to open up local markets for cheap forms of highly addictive drugs like crack and ice, as methamphetamine is known. Now even medium-sized towns like Zamora have large and growing populations of addicts, along with a rise in violent crime.
“Ten or 15 years ago we didn’t even see powdered cocaine, just marijuana,” said Cmdr. Juan Carlos Espinosa of the Zamora police department. “Then about three years ago we started to see a lot of signs of ice, crack and heroin.”
(Continued here.)
New York Times
ZAMORA, Mexico — When she gets her high, Lupita Díaz says she enters a sweet illusion of peace, a respite from her pain and self-loathing. She lies on her back in a meadow on the edge of town here with other addicts, looks up at the stars and plays aimlessly on a battered blue harmonica.
Sunrise brings a crashing sensation. Her joints ache. Her mouth goes dry. She has cold sweats, jumps at shadows, hears voices in her head. She is willing, once again, to prostitute herself to get $5 for another hit of crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine. She has been an addict for years, and her slight body is nearly worn out. She gave away her two children to others to raise.
“There is nothing nice about being here,” she said, slurring her words and covering her watery eyes with pink sunglasses. “It feels ugly not to be with your children. Feels awful. It’s not what I want. It’s not what I like. But when I have money, I want the drugs.”
Ms. Díaz’s story of addiction is common enough in most of America’s big cities, but until a few years ago it was rare in central Mexico. That has changed. Today, Mexico is no longer just a transit country for drugs bound for the United States. It is a country of drug users as well.
As Mexican drug cartels have grown in power, they have begun to open up local markets for cheap forms of highly addictive drugs like crack and ice, as methamphetamine is known. Now even medium-sized towns like Zamora have large and growing populations of addicts, along with a rise in violent crime.
“Ten or 15 years ago we didn’t even see powdered cocaine, just marijuana,” said Cmdr. Juan Carlos Espinosa of the Zamora police department. “Then about three years ago we started to see a lot of signs of ice, crack and heroin.”
(Continued here.)
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