MEXICO: STRUGGLING TO COPE WITH SOARING ADDICTION AT HOME

Calderon Government Has Launched Numerous Prevention And Education
Programs To Stem A Key Contributor To Narco-Violence

MEXICO CITY -- On his darkest days, Jorge snorted 15 grams of cocaine
and went through several packages of Delicados cigarettes. He stole
from his parents to fuel his addiction, lost his job and most of his
friends. Finally, he came to believe his life was "worth nothing."

"I always got high alone. I would call my dealer and he would bring me
my dose," says Jorge, a furtive man with brown eyes that flit around
the room and a craggy face that looks older than his 38 years.

Mexico, long known as a lucrative cocaine corridor to the United
States, has become a country with a serious domestic drug problem. In
the past five years, the number of drug addicts has almost doubled to
307,000. The number of people who have tried drugs rose to 4.5 million
from 3.5 million in this period.

About one-fifth of the cocaine that passes through the country from
Colombia and the other Andean countries is now consumed locally,
mostly by people aged 15 to 30. The rest goes to the world's biggest
drug market: Mexico's neighbour to the north.

President Felipe Calderon, who has launched an all-out offensive
against the country's powerful drug cartels, unleashing a reaction of
grotesque violence and beheadings, has also targeted domestic
consumption.

The country's historic approach to addiction was captured in Steven
Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar award-winning film Traffic. When Michael
Douglas's character, the U.S. anti-narcotics czar, asked his Mexican
counterpart about treatment, the man answered with this Hollywood
hyperbole: "Addicts treat themselves. They overdose."

Mr. Calderon's government always names the domestic drug market as a
key contributor to narco-violence, and has launched numerous drug
prevention and education programs. He has also introduced a proposal
under which people found carrying small amounts of drugs can avoid
prosecution if they declare they are addicts and submit to a treatment
program.

If not for his botched suicide attempt, Jorge may never have received
help. But last year, after a neighbour found him hanging by a towel in
his apartment, she called his parents, who brought him to a drug rehab
centre in downtown Mexico City. He was diagnosed with a depressive
disorder and put on anti-convulsive drugs.

"I used drugs to deal with the pain in my life," says Jorge, who
credits the clinic's psychiatrist and his daily medication for keeping
him clean.

When he began using cocaine in his 20s, the drug was still relatively
uncommon. "There was a very small group of drug addicts. Now it has
become a huge circle. Young, old, people without teeth, men, women,"
says Jorge, a former car salesman.

Every year, about 2,000 tons of cocaine come onto the Mexican market -
much of it is consumed by young men, says Monte Alejandro Rubido,
secretariat of Mr. Calderon's National System of Public Security. And
in a country where 20 per cent of the people live in poverty, drug
dealers come in many forms. The street trade, known as narcomenudeo,
is a new front in the war on drugs.

"We have the impression that drug dealers have beards, cowboy boots
and sombreros, but no, they are housewives, old people, ordinary
people," said Mr. Rubido in an interview in his Mexico City office.
"They don't believe they are doing anything wrong and are just looking
to make an extra $600 a month. That is why Mexico has such a pervasive
drug culture."

For many years, drugs were socially unacceptable in this conservative,
Roman Catholic country where many people live with their families
until they marry. But the social stigma of drug use has faded,
particularly for men, as more and more drug transporters are paid in
drugs instead of cash. Tijuana is now a thriving centre for
methamphetamines, made for export as well as local consumption. In
Ciudad Juarez, a methadone clinic has opened to treat heroin addicts.

Alma Garcia Alcaraz, Jorge's psychiatrist, says there has been an
alarming increase in the number of drug addicts. "Cartels are selling
more and more drugs in Mexico now," she said. "Many use crack, which
is much more addictive, cheaper and stronger."

A piedra, a rock of crack cocaine, sells for as little as $2. A grapa,
a small amount of powder cocaine, goes for $5.

Persuading addicts to get help is very difficult. It can take as long
as a decade for someone to enter treatment and the success rate is
only 40 per cent. Crack addicts often don't have that kind of time.

Programs are needed to target them more quickly, said Ricardo Sanchez
Huesca, head of research at the rehab centre, a national network of
110 clinics funded by the government. "The government is fighting the
narco-cartels. But we can't yet call it a success. We have drugs
available on every street corner," he says.

Addicts congregate in parks, dilapidated homes and corner stores. Many
dealers are small-time, and include abuelitas who used to sell
tortillas on the street.

"Now they sell a gram of coke," Jorge says. "It's so easy to get the
drugs, so more people end up using them."

THE SERIES

The Globe's Marina Jimenez reports from Mexico as the country
struggles to contain a spiralling crisis of drugs and violence.

Yesterday: As drug cartels fight each other and the police, the death rate
from violence surpasses that of Iraq.

Today: Long known as a lucrative cocaine corridor to the United States,
Mexico has become a country with a serious drug-addiction problem.

Next: As the government squeezes the profits of drug cartels, more and more
turn to kidnapping, car-jacking and extortion as lucrative sidelines.