SANTA MONICA, California — Former Mexican president Vicente Fox suggested Wednesday that drug trafficking and violence at the border aren’t caused by Mexico, but by drug consumption in the United States.

“Drug traffic, I guess people here in the [United] States say, ‘These Mexicans have gone crazy. They’re killing each other all day, violence and killings. Have they been drinking too much tequila?’” Fox said during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.

“No, we’re in a drug war that is not ours. We don’t produce drugs significantly. Maybe Donald should know that the state of California produces more marijuana than all of Mexico together.” he continued.

“Mexico does not consume drugs significantly. Here in this nation, about five percent of people consume drug every day. In Mexico, the consumption is 0000.0001,” Fox said.

We don’t have a consumption problem. Then, the question, why the war? Why the killings? It’s because we are in between those that consume the drugs here in the north in United States and those who produce the drugs south, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia.

“And here is Mexico in this war, why? We have accepted to collaborate with United States in trying to cut the drug trafficking, trying to impede the drug to reach the U.S. market. We’re paying the price,” Fox continuedd, saying the U.S. paid the Mexican government to help patrol the border and stop the drug trafficking.

“I would have never taken those $500 million. The cost of that war is much more than the loss of one life,” he said, adding that a “compassionate leader” would look for solutions.

Calling himself an “activist” for legalizing marijuana, Fox said, “This market generates $55 billion U.S. dollars … and where do they go? That money is laundered and that money goes to the cartels — and I ask this nation, who does the laundering?”

He added: “One day, I think it’s going to happen very soon, a Mexican president will come and tell United States, ‘You don’t want drug in your territory, you hold it.’”

He then turned his attention to criticizing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his statements about crime on the border.

“So all this talking about homicides [and] violence in Mexico, the one that Trump criticizes, is produced here,” Fox challenged. “Lets get rid of that language of hate that this campaign has brought about, that’s not United States. United States is a great nation.”