In 2000, the number of seizures of cocaine and heroin along the common border of Mexico and the United States increased, as did the quantity of cocaine and heroin seized along that border. There has been a noticeable increase in the abuse of heroin in some Mexican cities close to the United States border and in the abuse of cocaine and crack in Mexico City. Drug abuse has become a greater challenge to the authorities in Mexico. The intensified efforts to eradicate illicit cannabis cultivation continued in the United States. Seizures of cannabis in the United States were 40 per cent higher in 1999 than in 1998.
Cannabis remains the most commonly abused drug in that country.
Since 1994, there has been no significant change in the number of cannabis abusers in the country. Seizures of cocaine in the United States have increased in the past year, probably due to enhanced international cooperation. As it has become more difficult to smuggle drugs into the United States by air, South American traffickers now ship more cocaine and heroin by sea to Central America and the Caribbean and then smuggle the drugs into the United States by land. In general, the abuse of cocaine in the United States has remained at a stable level in recent years. The decline in cocaine abuse among students in 1999 was the first decline in recent years.