Breathe In Mexico

Mexico seems to be getting the brunt of all the chaos that’s being caused from the drug cartels. Marijuana, crack cocaine and heroin, major transports from Mexico to the states, don’t seem to have as large of a market in Mexico.

Leonardo Aguilar, 20, explains that he likes marijuana but it is just too expensive, so instead he inhales fumes from a “mona”, a scrap of cloth soaked with industrial solvents, which lasts about 10 to 15 minutes. To pay for his habit he collects shards of broken glass and lays on them while shocked commuters give him a few pesos. His habit is so extreme that he is living under a bridge in Mexico City.

Inhalants are the drug of choice in Mexico because marijuana, crack, cocaine and heroin are too expensive for the poor population and considered drugs for rich Americans. These solvents contain toluene which is cheap and legal to buy, which make them a more growing product in Mexico where the minimum wage is $4.50 a day and most of the homeless live on less than a dollar a day.

For 15 pesos, about $1.18, a person can buy a puddle of almost 3 ounces of toluene, which will last a whole day; compared to few grams of marijuana, that cost 20 pesos which is $1.57 and even more expensive a rock of crack cocaine costing $4 that only lasts a small part of the day.

Though Mexico is on a different level than the states economically, they still have the same problems. Just as a rise in inhalants in Mexico is appearing it is also happening in the US, and in both countries, it is an issue that is seldom talked about or addressed. Despite the fact that inhalants are legal, they have many of the same consequences illegal drugs have and are bringing people down all around.

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