EL BARRIL, Mexico — The Mexican government is allowing domestic marijuana and opium-poppy production to climb to record levels, as soldiers who once cut and burned illegal crops here are being redeployed to cities to wage urban warfare against criminal gangs.
Since President Felipe Calderon ordered his troops into the streets in late 2006, the acreage dedicated to marijuana farming has nearly doubled in Mexico, according to technical reports by the U.S. government and United Nations, data provided by the Mexican military, and interviews with law enforcement agents and growers.
U.S. officials say they are worried about a new flood of cheap drugs from Mexico but have limited ability to push for a more aggressive eradication campaign.
Mexican troops hacked and burned 77,500 acres of marijuana in 2005, the year before Calderon took office. But last year, they cleared 43,000 acres, according to the Mexican army and marines. Marijuana seizures at America’s southwestern border went from 1 million kilograms in 2006 to 1.5 million kilograms in 2010.
As the acreage of poppy destroyed has dropped, Mexican heroin production has boomed, from 8 metric tons in 2005 to 50 metric tons in 2009, according to the U.S. government. Heroin seizures along the U.S.-Mexico border have tripled.
