President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador noted that in the United States each year about 100,000 people die from fentanyl use, but in Mexico this problem has been less thanks to culture, he said on March 28 in his morning conference.
The Mexican president criticized that in the television series makes an apology for drug trafficking, where “they paint everything pink: they make everything related to organized crime very attractive. They are handsome girls and boys, designer clothes, latest model cars, power”.
For this reason, the federal president and the Secretary of Public Education, Leticia Ramírezannounced that the campaign will be developed in the coming weeks If you take drugs, you hurt yourselfin public secondary and upper secondary schools, against drug use, which will be reinforced on radio and television.
They pointed out that the axis of this information campaign is to make visible the damage of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, since the addiction and destruction it causes lead to death very quickly.
“It is very important to call on teachers, teachers, directors, school directors to help us in this campaign. Of course, teachers and parents, there is the need to inform young people and adolescents about the harm caused by drugsespecially synthetic ones like fentanyl”.
The campaign “If you take drugs, you get hurt” will be launched on April 17 and it will be from the council meeting that the public schools will hold on March 31, when the schools begin the preparation work.
According to the President of the Republic, each classroom is expected to dedicate at least 15 minutes a week to disseminate information on the harmful effects of drug use.
Regarding the consumption of fentanyl in Mexico, López Obrador gave as an example that the use of this drug has been detected in the industrial corridor of Guanajuato, mainly.
Faced with criticism from the US, where they point to Mexico as the origin of the trafficking of this synthetic drug, President López Obrador has assured that drug use in that country is due to the lack of hugs from parents towards their children and also of values in the last decades. He stated that the current problem “lack of integration in families”
During President Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico on January 9, 2023, he spoke with his counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about the fentanyl crisis in both countries.
At that meeting, both governments established a commitment to take action to combat the production, trafficking, and distribution of fentanyl.
In recent weeks, US Republican lawmakers such as Lindsey Graham and Dan Cranshaw have launched harsh criticism of the López Obrador government, which they accused of doing nothing to stop fentanyl trafficking.
In addition, various US officials, such as Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, have recognized that criminal organizations in Mexico, dedicated to the production of fentanyl, have gained a presence in Mexican territory.
In the first week of March, the governments of Mexico and the US agreed to launch a binational campaign to prevent the use of fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin, so it is not difficult for its users to suffer a lethal overdose.
The agreement was announced after a meeting between Elizabeth Sherwood-RandallUS Presidential National Security Adviser, and Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico.
On March 22, Karine Jean-PierrePress Secretary of the White Houseresponded to the accusations of the Mexican government towards that nation for the high consumption of this opioid among its population.
“As far as fentanyl is concerned, this It’s not a US problem, it’s global.” and emphasized that the trafficking of this opioid and other substances has caused great social damage, as well as “unnecessary deaths and suffering to society not only here, but also in Mexico.”
