Mexico takes steps to ban fentanyl without a prescription

Donald Trump’s threats may already extend beyond the Mexican border. On Wednesday, December 11, the Mexican Parliament adopted a constitutional reform banning the production, distribution and consumption without a prescription of fentanyl, a powerful opioid responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year in the neighboring United States.

The Republican president-elect, who will succeed Joe Biden in January in the White House, demanded that Mexico take drastic measures against fentanyl trafficking, threatening to impose customs duties of 25% “until drugs, especially fentanyl, and all illegal immigrants stop this invasion of our country”.

By 110 votes for and five against, the Mexican Senate gave the green light to the initiative launched by the ruling left and already approved last week by the Chamber of Deputies. The text must now be validated by the Parliaments of the thirty-two states of Mexico. This constitutional reform, which also prohibits the production, distribution and sale of electronic cigarettes, aims to “protect the health of Mexicans”.

Donald Trump also accuses China

In June, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stressed that “fentanyl and other synthetic opioids represent the vast majority” overdose deaths in the United States, the number of which has exceeded one million since 2000. In 2023 alone, this substance caused 70,000 overdose deaths, according to American authorities.

Washington says Mexican cartels manufacture and sell fentanyl using inputs from China. US President-elect Donald Trump accuses China of not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of this synthetic drug, fifty times more powerful than heroin while being much easier and less expensive to produce.

China, for its part, maintains that there is no illegal trafficking of fentanyl between its territory and Mexico, but has promised to strengthen controls.