68% of those surveyed agreed the military should be involved in the fight against trafficking
More than 40% of those polled said they felt less safe than they did a year ago
Many of those polled are considering emigrating because of the violence
In Mexico, the government has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to break up the powerful drug cartels and stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States.
The BBC's Emilio San Pedro has been to the border city of Tijuana, and profiles a community under pressure from one of Mexico's most powerful cartels.
Listen Listen to Emilio's report (23 mins)
Almost 3,000 people have lost their lives in crimes related to drug trafficking between January and August of this year, according to the Mexican authorities.
In July alone, at least 443 people were killed, more than in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A survey of more than 1,200 Mexicans by the BBC's Spanish service, BBC Mundo, found that over a third of those surveyed had thought of leaving the country because of the violence.
Julia Zapata is the head of BBC Mundo:
Listen Listen to Julia Zapata (59 secs)
The BBC's Emilio San Pedro spoke to Cristina Hodoyan, the mother of two young men. One is now in prison for murder; the other disappeared in 1996:
Listen Listen to Cristina Hodoyan (3 mins 9 secs)
The US government says the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico to the US is worth nearly $14 billion a year and Mexico now surpasses Colombia as the main source of cocaine in the western hemisphere.
A great deal of those drugs are smuggled via the border city of Tijuana, where cartels are fighting each other over this lucrative market.
President Calderon has declared war on the cartels and has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to try to curb their power.
Emilio San Pedro went to Tijuana to assess the impact of the government's actions:
Listen Listen to Emilio's report (5 mins 36 secs)
Emilio also visited a drugs rehabilitation centre in Tijuana which treats children as young as eight.
He asked the director of the youth programme, Jose Ramon Arreola, how widespread the problem was:
Listen Listen to Jose Ramon Arreola (3 mins 15 secs)
The World Today's George Arney put it to the US drugs tsar, John Walters, that the scale of the violence in Mexico suggests that the cartels are out of control:
Listen Listen to John Walters (4 mins 37 secs)
The World Today's Fergus Nicoll asked TJ Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council, about morale amongst US border guards:
Listen Listen to TJ Bonner (4 mins 28 secs)
More on the BBC Mundo.com survey and the impact of drugs on Mexico can be found at BBC Mundo's Narco Mexico website, which includes artwork by Mexican graffiti artist Watchavato.
First broadcast 22 & 23 September 2008
