Cannabis Losing Ground to Heroin Poppy in Mexico, Reports States Fox News Latino
go to original April 5, 2013

Mexico poppy production (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Poppy production in Mexico is overtaking marijuana as the top illicit crop grown in the Latin American nation, according to a new report released by the Mexican government.

Mexican authorities last year eradicated 40 percent more poppy plants than it did marijuana plants, the Mexican defense ministry reported.

Opium and heroin are both derived from poppy and the use of these narcotics has risen in the United States, the largest market for drugs coming from Mexico. While the Mexican cartels provide only 7 percent of the world’s heroin, it is a key supplier of the narcotics flowing into the U.S.

The numbers are a significant change from 2007, when the area with marijuana crops destroyed by Mexican troops was about 50 percent greater than that of poppy – about - 22,965 hectares compared to 11,393 hectares. The gap, however, quickly began to narrow in 2008 and 2009, with a shift occurring last year, when 14,347 hectares of poppy was destroyed compared to just 8,670 hectares of marijuana.

The study also indicates that poppy production throughout the country is widespread, with it being grown both in northern border states like Nuevo León, Chihuahua and Sinaloa as well as in the far south of the country in Chiapas and Yucatán.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

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