Seducing Women With Drugs: A Phenomenon That Is Growing In The Country

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat

Many of them begin with the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, and then consume rock, crack and crystal meth.

Drugs, a phenomenon that is on the rise among women.

“I started with alcohol and selling drugs, and that involved me in the consumption of meth,” says a young woman of just 17 years old, who is now addicted to this substance, a phenomenon that is on the rise among women from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

Even though there are no real statistics that reveal how many women consume this and other drugs on the northern border, the owners of rehabilitation centers point out, in an interview with El Universal, that the problem is growing exponentially.

THEY START WITH ALCOHOL

Many of them begin with the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, then consume rock or crack and finally move on to crystal meth. There are also those who are sellers of these drugs, so when they have easy access to this substance they fall into consumption. When they are not murdered for consuming the merchandise they must sell, they end up in rehabilitation centers addicted to crystal meth.

From 2017 to 2021, the federal Ministry of Health reported an increase in requests for crystal meth addiction treatment, since then this drug became the fourth most consumed addictive substance in the country.

In turn, 2021 data from the report of the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Addictions (Sisvea) establishes that since 2017 amphetamine-type substances (crystal meth) have been positioned in fourth place as initial drugs, thereby displacing inhalants.

According to the Ministry of Health, crystal meth is a white or sandy powder, although it comes in the form of small rocks or thick, clear crystals. Its most common form of consumption is by smoking it, but it can also be inhaled or injected. It can be made with very cheap ingredients that are available without a prescription, such as chemicals, battery acid, drain cleaner, flashlight fuel, and fertilizer.

ADDICTION GROWS

Gregorio Sáenz, addiction counselor and manager of a rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, explains that meth consumption is widespread on the northern border of the country, both in men and women, since it is not only a sector where consumption worsens, but throughout the town.

This would have caused the consumption of crystal meth among women to have increased exponentially, especially among adolescents and young people. “The consumption is in the west, in the area of ​​Los Kilómetros [at the exit of Juárez] and many of the women who appear dead in those areas are very good at selling the drug, but the problem is when they start consuming the substance “he points out.

He says that, previously, in some areas of Juárez consumption was more focused on heroin and other substances, both in men and women; However, currently consumption is mainly “crystal meth”, especially among the female sector.

Many of the women who currently find themselves in an addiction problem first consumed either alcohol or marijuana, but there are also those who are dedicated to selling or whose father or mother is a drug dealer and end up consuming this drug.

IMPORTANT PHENOMENON

“There is a very important phenomenon currently. This is that the mother comes to the rehabilitation centers, but she is a seller [of drugs] and she takes the daughters who are consuming it because they end up addicted to the drug that they sell. There is also a community of adolescents who study in El Paso, Texas, aged 15 to 16, but live here [in Juárez] and who get the drug, consume it and here end up addicted to this drug,” explains the specialist.

El Mañana