From opium to fentanyl: Rural life, politics and crime in Mexico. Drugs, international challenges No. 14

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Unlike in other parts of the world, poppy cultivation and opium use are recent phenomena in Mexican history. Their development during the 20th century was the product of social and political factors which must be studied in order to understand Mexico's current position in the international market for illegal opioids, as well as the turning point which seems to have taken place in recent years with the emergence of a new type of substance: illegal fentanyls. In order to understand how the illegal poppy economy in Mexico was built and the consequences of its decline on the stakeholders involved, this 14th issue of Drugs, international challenges proposes to place the development of poppy cultivation and heroin production in Mexico in its geographical and historical context, before exploring, through an analysis of descriptive statistics and secondary field sources, the impact of recent fluctuations in the heroin market on poppy cultivators.