THE President of Mexico has come up with an explanation for an opioid overdose crisis in the USA - apparently it's because American families don't hug their children enough.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was commenting on claims that Mexico is not cracking down hard enough on cartels which are trafficking fentanyl, blamed for about 70,000 overdoses annually in the US.
The problem, he told a news briefing last week, was due to "a lot of disintegration of families.
"There is a lot of individualism, there is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces," Lopez Obrador said.
"That is why US officials should be dedicating funds to address the causes," he added, noting his belief that close-knit family values are what has saved Mexico from a similar fentanyl crisis.
Some American officials have called on Mexico to designate drug gangs as terrorist organisations, according to an Associated Press report, but Lopez Obrador described US anti-drug policies as a failure, and also proposed a ban in both nations on medicinal use of fentanyl, despite most of the problems relating to illicitly produced counterfeit fentanyl.
The Mexican government has also been stung by a recent official warning from the Texas Department of Public Safety to avoid travel to parts of Mexico during the upcoming spring break holiday period, due to the risk of cartel violence.
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