Mexico’s Poor Make Paint Thinner Their Vice

A mariachi band was playing for tourists in Garibaldi Plaza when the stink of paint thinner began to overpower the fragrance of roses sold by strolling vendors.

A thin, disheveled woman stood in the middle of the square with a folded piece of cloth in one hand and a plastic bottle of clear liquid in the other.

“This is my only vice,” said the 23-year-old prostitute, who gave her name as Gloria and swayed as she held the solvent-soaked rag to her face. “This, a little wine and my cigarettes.”

Narcotics abuse has not reached epidemic proportions in Mexico; a national drug prevention program and a troubled economy have helped keep the use of hard drugs from expanding.

Cheap inhalants like glue, paint thinner and other industrial solvents are becoming popular among the lower economic classes and fears are growing that Mexico is fertile ground for drug addiction.

One reason is the wide variety of illegal drugs available here. Mexico grows marijuana and opium poppies, and is a transit point for cocaine and heroin bound for the United States from South America.

More than half the 85 million people are under 19 and an estimated 800,000 enter the glutted job market each year.

“They have no opportunity for employment or school,” said Mario Alberto, who works at Drug Addicts Anonymous. “There is a great number of people at risk.”

The latest National Survey of Addictions found that 4.3% of Mexicans, more than half of them under age 34, had experimented with drugs at least once. It was conducted in 1988 and released this year by the General Directorate of Epidemiology and the Mexican Psychiatric Institute.

It said drug use was significantly more prevalent in northwestern states like Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa that are close to the U.S. border or serve as bases for large-scale traffickers.

Of the estimated 500,000-plus drug addicts in Mexico, the federal attorney general’s office says, 300,000 use inhalants, 200,000 use marijuana, 30,000 use cocaine and the rest use heroin or opium.

People working in prevention and rehabilitation programs worry about the increased use of inhalants.

Money determines the drug of choice in a nation whose minimum wage is equivalent to $3.60 a day.

“We are a poor country,” said Martha Nelda Morales, assistant director of the Adolescent Orientation Center, a health service group. “We are trying to satisfy our basic needs, like food, clothing and shelter.”

A half pint of paint thinner costs 7 cents and a tube of glue $1.07. It is illegal to sell either to anyone under 18, but enforcement is lax.

Street prices for marijuana and cocaine, respectively, are about $1.80 a cigarette and $35 a gram.

“They give it away,” a 14-year-old user named Jose said of inhalants. He was walking in Garibaldi Plaza, a tourist area of curio shops, bars and food stands where mariachis play for tips.

Inhalants can cause permanent damage to the brain, liver, lungs and stomach, but Jose and other users show little concern about that.

“It takes away my hunger, my sleepiness and my problems,” Jose said, gripping a tiny container of paint thinner. “I’ll stop when I get older.”

Some people say a “higher morality” has kept hard drugs from getting a strong hold on this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation.

“The concept of the family is stronger,” Morales said.

Dr. Raul Zapata Aguilar, medical director for the national Youth Integration Centers, said a decision to focus on prevention had made the difference.

“Twenty years ago, Mexico decided the only way to stem the tide of drug use was to stem the demand for drugs,” he said.

Most Mexican drug programs do not use the fear themes popular in the United States, such as “Drugs Kill.”

Zapata believes the appeal to fear has only a short-term effect: “It’s like speeding on a highway and seeing an accident,” he said. “You will slow down for the next five miles, but eventually you will speed up again.”

The usual Mexican approach is to de-emphasize drugs and teach adolescents, parents and teachers how to achieve a healthy emotional, family and physical life.

Advertisements show young people river rafting, for example, with the words “Say yes to life” across the top in large letters and “Say no to drugs” in smaller print on the bottom.

Direct-action programs organize activities such as weight lifting, street theater, poetry workshops and sports teams in poorer neighborhoods to keep children away from narcotics.

A Roman Catholic priest known as Father Chimchachoma runs Providence House. He collects waifs from the street and takes them to one of its 15 homes, where they can live until they finish school or learn a trade.

One morning, he told three new arrivals of a diamond left in a muddy field. Passers-by ignored the dirty, seemingly worthless object, he said, but someone finally picked it up and washed it.

“And what did he find?” the priest asked.

“A diamond!” the boys shouted in unison.

“And what are you?”

“Diamonds!”