Last week, the White House quietly, and unnoticed by any news organization, released the 2015 heroin production estimate for Mexico—it was another huge spike upward to an historic level. The amount of pure heroin produced in Mexico rose to 70 metric tons in 2015, a 67-percent increase over 2014, and a 169-percent increase over the 2013 estimate of 26 metric tons. Nearly all Mexican heroin is targeted at the United States. This flood of heroin is driving overdose deaths and the new estimate indicates that deaths will increase.

Mexican cartels are seeking to create new consumers of heroin by flooding the U.S. market with a cheaper and purer version of the drug. Facing little recent resistance from either Mexican or U.S. leadership, their surge in production and supply-side business plan has demonstrated deadly effectiveness.