The annual United States Government estimate of “Mexican Poppy Cultivation and Heroin Production” found poppy cultivation in Mexico decreased by 27 percent, from 41,800 hectares in 2018 to 30,400 hectares in 2019. Similarly, potential pure heroin production decreased by 27 percent, from 106 metric tons in 2018 to 78 metric tons in 2019. This 27 percent decrease in the potential production of heroin marks a milestone by meeting a goal set by the Trump Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy two years early.
“Following two years of record high poppy cultivation, the United States is encouraged by the progress being made to stem heroin production in Mexico,” ONDCP Director Jim Carroll stated. “The 27 percent drop in Mexican poppy cultivation in 2019 is accompanied by a potential drop of 7 percent in heroin deaths in the United States in 2019 according to the recently-released provisional overdose data. President Trump’s leadership in declaring the opioid crisis a Public Health Emergency his first year in office, and declaring a National Emergency on our Southern Border in 2019 is saving American lives. The Administration remains concerned by reports of continued methamphetamine and fentanyl production in Mexico, and urges continued collaboration between our nations to ensure the advances made in poppy reduction extend to all illicit substances — for the good of Mexico and for the good of the United States.”
The United States recognizes the efforts by Mexican President Lopez Obrador to prioritize increasing alternative livelihoods for farmers in drug-producing areas through social programs as one of the pillars of his counternarcotics strategy.
