Mexico’s President said Friday that the overdose crisis involving fentanyl was caused by families in the USA. He claimed that they don’t hug enough their children.

This comment from President Andres Manuel Lopez Ombrador caps a week’s worth of provocative statements by him about the crisis caused fentanyl by Mexican cartels, which has been linked to approximately 70,000 deaths annually due to overdose in the United States.

Lopez Obrador stated that family values are being destroyed in America because parents don’t allow their children to live at home for long enough. He also denied the existence of fentanyl in Mexico.

The Mexican president stated that the problem was due to “a lack in hugs, embraces” on Friday morning news.

Lopez Obrador spoke out about the U.S. crisis saying that there was “a lot of family disintegration, there’s a lot more individualism, there’s a lot less love, brotherhood, and hugs and embraces.” They (the U.S. officials) need to dedicate funds to the causes.

Lopez Obrador repeatedly stated that Mexico’s close-knit families are what saved it from the fentanyl epidemic. Experts believe that Mexican cartels have so much money from the U.S. that they don’t see any need to sell fentanyl on their own markets.

Methamphetamines are often sold by cartels in Mexico because the drug is believed to be more popular there.

Lopez Obrador was stung by the United States’ calls to label Mexican drug gangs terrorist organizations. Some Republicans support the use of the U.S. military against Mexican cartels.

Lopez Obrador, who called the U.S. anti-drug policy a failure Wednesday, proposed that both countries ban the use of fentanyl as medicine. Even though very little of the drug is sold on the black market, it was still used in hospitals.

U.S. authorities believe that most illegal fentanyl was produced in Mexico using Chinese precursor chemicals. The illegal market for medicinal fentanyl, which is used to anesthetize surgeries and other procedures, accounts for a small percentage.

Only a few reports have reported that glass flasks containing medicinal fentanyl made it into the illegal market. Mexican cartels make most illegal fentanyl into fake pills that look like other drugs like Xanax or oxycodone.