Drug Use in Mexico Is Up, U.S. Reports

U.S. drug-control chief Edward H. Jurith said Wednesday that cocaine use is rising in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, perhaps because of tighter U.S. border security.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States increased border security, making it harder to smuggle in narcotics and apparently leaving Mexican traffickers with more drugs on their hands.

“The cocaine threat is increasing in Mexico,” Jurith said during a tour of a drug rehabilitation center at the start of a two-day visit here.

“We are watching what’s happening on the border very carefully,” said Jurith, acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “We are watching how the narcotics traffickers will respond” to the increased security.

Dr. Guido Belsasso, director of Mexico’s National Council on Addictions, said “there are some reports of increased availability [of drugs] after the tightening of security at the border.”

It’s not just cocaine that has Mexican officials concerned; heroin is an increasing problem too.

Belsasso said heroin use is spreading as addicted migrants return from the U.S., bringing their addictions back to small towns in central and southern Mexico that never had problems with heroin before. Thousands have come back since Sept. 11.