• LOSING STEAM Government efforts to eradicate poppy fields intended for heroin production in Mexico has slowed in 2019 under the López Obrador Administration going from the recorded monthly average of 1,968 hectares destroyed in 2018 to just 1,608 in 2019, per official data.
• RECORD YEAR The main source for heroin in American markets according to the US Government, Mexican Army forces destroyed 23,600 hectares of poppy in 2018 (58,300 acres); the new Mexican Government had promised new strategies for farmers to transition into legal crops.
• US FACTOR Contrary to some reports saying that heroin production was dwindling due to the rise of synthetic opioid fentanyl, the US Government alerted in June that poppy cultivation remained at high record levels in Mexico estimating a total of 41,800 hectares planted in 2018.
• KEY REGIONS The mountainous region of Guerrero along the Pacific Coast is considered to be the main poppy producing area in Mexico along with other areas in the Golden Triangle area where the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Sonora meet; poppy is also produced in Nayarit.
