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Mexico’s president said Friday that U.S. families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they don’t hug their kids enough. The comment by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States. ... “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,” López Obrador said of the U.S. crisis. “That is why they (U.S. officials) should be dedicating funds to address the causes.” (3/17)

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning about dangerous counterfeit pills being sold at pharmacies in Mexico that often contain fentanyl. The travel alert posted Friday says Americans should “exercise caution when purchasing medication in Mexico.” ... A study led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that 68% of the 40 Mexican pharmacies visited in four northern Mexico cities sold Oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, and that 27% of those pharmacies were selling fake pills. (3/18)

Without referring to them by name, the Mexican president Thursday called the lawmakers “bullies” and accused them of lacking principles. López Obrador nonetheless said he will continue cooperating with the U.S. on the issue because he wants to help. He also praised President Joe Biden for treating Mexico with respect and signing an executive order this week aimed at expanding background checks on prospective gun buyers. López Obrador said that 80 percent of the guns used by gangs in Mexico come from the United States. (Mahr, 3/17)

When Tyler Shamash survived a drug overdose at 19, his mother, Juli, asked his doctor several times if he’d been tested for fentanyl. Tyler had been in and out of sober living homes in Los Angeles after battling addiction for years, and his family suspected he may have been taking illicit drugs. The doctor said they had run a standard drug test and fentanyl hadn’t come up in the toxicology screen. (Barrett and Seward, 3/17)

Fentanyl drug overdoses kill more than a hundred thousand people every year across America. In New Orleans, Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna says the loss is great. “It’s a catastrophe of the highest order,” says Dr. McKenna. Dr. McKenna says of the nearly 500 drug overdose death in New Orleans last year, 95% of them were from fentanyl. This year, he says it could be worse. (Robin, 3/16)

Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill that would increase the penalties for people in possession of more than a gram of fentanyl or for those dealing the drug. There has been plenty of debate about Oregon’s voter-approved Measure 110, which decriminalized low-level drug possession, even for hard drugs. (Gordon, 3/18)

Late one afternoon, Mazzy Walker gives a tour of her family's farm near Tahlequah, Okla., capital of the Cherokee Nation. "Cows are walking, turkeys, a dog," she said, giggling at her role as tour-guide. "I don't know what!" (Mann, 3/19)

Dr. Robert K. Brooner, an internationally recognized expert in addiction treatment and research who had been head of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s Addiction Treatment Services and Center for Addiction and Pregnancy, died of metastatic cancer Feb. 26 at his Millsboro, Delaware, home. The former longtime Clarksville resident was 71. (Rasmussen, 3/17)