However, investigations reveal a distressing truth: certain establishments posing as pharmacies are peddling pills infused with lethal fentanyl and incredibly addictive methamphetamine. The presence of adulterated substances within these pills, coupled with their deceptive packaging designed to imitate English-language pharmaceutical products, indicates their origin as the handiwork of Mexico's influential drug cartels, rather than legitimate pharmaceutical companies.
From Vice:
TULUM, Mexico—The local “pharmacy” on the sun-soaked marina in Cabo San Lucas is bland and clean. There is no government license on the wall. Bottles of sun lotion stand on half-empty shelves, and hand-written signs in English, aimed at the American tourists this city is so popular with, denote some of the meds on offer, such as ibuprofen or Voltaren.
“Hello, friend,” says the short, male sales assistant, who is wearing a blue polo shirt and dark glasses, in English. “Can I help you?” the shop assistant continues.
Beyond medication intended for hangovers and colds, highly addictive opioid painkillers mimicking Oxycontin and Vicodin, as well as other prescription pills resembling Xanax and Adderrall, are also on offer in dozens of outlets like these across Mexico’s tourist towns. You just have to know that you can ask for them. No prescription needed, no questions asked, and as many pills as you want.
But an investigation by VICE News with the Bunk Police, a drug testing company, found that some of these so-called pharmacies are selling pills laced with deadly fentanyl and highly addictive meth. The adulterated nature of the pills as well as their form and fake English-language packing is a sign that they’re produced and distributed by Mexico’s powerful drug cartels and not legitimate pharmaceutical companies, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and experts consulted for this investigation.
Mexico’s government has done almost nothing to tackle this problem, and is ill-equipped to do so.
“Each pharmacy and each group of small-time gangsters there is affiliated either with CJNG or the Sinaloa Cartel — all turf is clearly divided,” according to a United States government official who asked not to be named as they weren’t authorized to comment on the subject. Street level drug dealers are also allied with pharmacies in some of the resorts we visited.
The current state of affairs in Mexico portrays a distressing situation.
In Mexico, as well as in numerous neighboring countries, the pervasive issue of drug proliferation has reached alarming proportions, with no apparent signs of abatement in the foreseeable future.
