Lack of hugs for children caused US opioid crisis, says Mexico president

AMERICAN families are to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they do not hug their children enough, Mexico’s president said yesterday.

The latest comment by Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements around the issue of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels, that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the US.

Mr López Obrador said family values have broken down in the US, because parents do noy let their children live at home long enough. He has also denied that Mexico produces fentanyl. The

Mexican president told yesterday’s morning news briefing that the problem was caused by “a lack of hugs”.

He said: “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 [US officials] should be dedicating funds to address the causes.”

Mr López Obrador has repeatedly said that Mexico’s close-knit family values have saved it from a wave of fentanyl overdoses.

Drug trade experts say that Mexican cartels are making so much money from the US market that they do not need to sell it at home.

Cartels instead sell methamphetamines in Mexico, where the drug is more popular because it purportedly helps people work harder.

Mr López Obrador has been stung by calls in the US to designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist organisations. Some Republicans have said they favour using the US military to crack down on the Mexican cartels.