Children do not get enough hugs from their parents - the reason behind America's fentanyl crisis, the Mexican President declared.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed US parents for the fentanyl overdose crisis killing many young people. He stated that kids need more hugs, yet their parents deny them, Oregon Live reported.
"There is a lot of disintegration of families, there is a lot of individualism, there is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces. That is why (U.S. officials) should be dedicating funds to address the causes," López Obrador proclaimed in a morning news briefing.
The US has broken family values
López Obrador added that America's family values have long since broken down with parents not letting their kids live at home long enough until they reach a certain age, as compared to the close-knit family values that Mexico have, which, he kept on repeating, saved the country and its young ones from the fentanyl crisis.
The comment of the President came after a week's worth of "provocative statements" from him about the ongoing and rising crisis caused by fentanyl, especially when combined with methamphetamines, according to a study published by Illinois News Bureau. It has caused almost 70,000 deaths due to overdose annually in the United States.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid allegedly trafficked by cartels from López Obrado's country, as claimed by US drug control authorities, which the Mexican President repudiated.
Mexico does not produce Fentanyl, he declared.
US anti-drug policies a failure
Experts have been saying that Mexican cartels are currently earning a lot of money from the US market and that they do not see the need anymore to sell the drug in their home market.
Methamphetamines, also a synthetic drug, are said to be frequently sold in Mexico by cartels. It is popular in their country as it can help people work harder, though peer-viewed scientific data has yet to prove this.
According to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of kinesiology and community health Rachel Hoopsick, who also led the study, though methamphetamine can be deadly, its toxicity did not increase in the past years. However, the influence of illegally manufactured fentanyl has alarmingly shot up.
She noted that some of the new deaths involving new methamphetamine also involve either unintentional co-use of fentanyl or contamination by fentanyl during the drug-manufacturing process at some point.
Last Wednesday, the Mexican President labeled the US anti-drug policies a failure and proposed to ban fentanyl from both countries for medical use. However, US authorities stated that little of the drug gets to cross from the hospitals and into the illegal market.
US authorities further revealed that most illegal fentanyl is being produced in stealthy labs in Mexico with the use of Chinese precursor chemicals. Mexican cartels reportedly press most illegal fentanyl into counterfeit pills that look like Xanax, oxycodone, or Percocet.
López Obrador has been stung by calls in the United States to designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist organizations. Some Republicans have said they favor using the US military to crack down on the Mexican cartels.
WOIN reported that the Republicans have been wanting military action against drug cartels. The Mexican President has snapped back at the country's plan to identify Mexican drug gangs as terrorist organizations.
Related article: Wisconsin Mom Warns American Families of Fentanyl Danger After Teen Son Dies From Poisoning
