Yucatán teens start using drugs at age 14, synthetic use rises

Mérida, Yucatán — For many years, drug use among young people in Yucatán was an open secret, but it is now impossible not to notice its advance, particularly of synthetic substances like “crystal” meth, which is among the cheapest and most harmful.

“You cannot hide the sun with a finger,” asserts the director of the Youth Integration Center, teacher Anabel Caraveo.

The professional emphasizes that the first filter to prevent consumption must be in the home: “being attentive to changes in behavior, such as sleeping a lot or not sleeping, irritability, red eyes, weight gain or loss.”

She explains that those who distribute narcotics have incorporated social media as a sales market, “and although it is not legal for a minor under 13 to have Instagram and Facebook accounts, among others, the reality is that they have access and could be victims of these people.”

She highlighted that adolescents are in a complicated stage and that parents generally attribute unusual behaviors to this growth stage and “do not give it importance until their children are already addicts.”

“Yucatán has difficult antecedents of mental health and suicide incidence, to which this problem is added,” she explained.

Teacher Caraveo recalled that among the main cases they attend to are those involving consumption of crystal and other synthetic drugs that have become very popular among the population, surpassing marijuana, which in the past was the most consumed illegal substance.

She highlighted that drug consumption is also an alarming problem in the municipalities.

There, its use, despite being very closed societies, has reached great popularity due to migration or the employment of their inhabitants in other cities, such as Mérida and Cancún.

She called for approaching the Youth Integration Centers, at their two locations in Mérida, in the Center and near the Periférico Oriente, “because treatment at a younger age can achieve less suffering and reintegrate the consumer into a full life, through comprehensive therapies and much family support.”

Alarm Bells in Schools

Alarm bells have been lit in Yucatecan schools, such as in Preparatory School No. 8, where drug trafficking and consumption have been documented.

The tactics are not new: they give away “little samples” to hook young people and, when these become “regular customers,” several are recruited to sell drugs, assuring them that “they will earn a lot of money, will live the high life and will be the most popular in their circle of friends.”

Furthermore, there are adolescents who fall into drugs by wanting to fit in and be popular, or seeking an escape from problems at home.

The consumption of these substances has also raised the perception of insecurity, with red flags in conurbated municipalities like Kanasin and Uman, where “shooting galleries” are reported.

Drugs are within everyone’s reach, surpassing security forces; even, one no longer has to go for the product, but orders it for home delivery and it is delivered by people disguised as food delivery personnel in several cases.