President Donald Trump (Screenshot of White House video)

(CNSNews.com) - During his announcement that he was declaring a national public health emergency in the opioid crisis, President Donald Trump said that he doesn’t drink or smoke because he heeded the warnings of his brother, who was an alcoholic.



“I learned myself. I had a brother, Fred -- great guy, best-looking guy, best personality -- much better than mine, but he had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol, and he would tell me, ‘Don’t drink. Don't drink,’” Trump said.





“He was substantially older, and I listened to him and I respected, but he would constantly tell me, don't drink. He'd also add, don't smoke, but he would say it over and over and over again,” the president said.



“And to this day, I've never had a drink, and I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it. To this day, I've never had a cigarette. Don't worry, those are only two of my good things. I don't want to tell you about the bad things. There's plenty of bad things too,” he said.

“But he really helped me. I had somebody that guided me, and he had a very, very, very tough life because of alcohol -- believe me, very, very tough, tough life. He was a strong guy, but it was a tough, tough thing that he was going through, but I learned because of Fred. I learned, and that's what I think is so important.” Trump said.



“This was an idea that I had, where if we can teach young people not to take drugs -- just not to take them. When I see friends of mine that are having difficulty with not having that drink at dinner, where it's literally almost impossible for them to stop, I say to myself, I can't even understand it -- why would that be difficult? But we understand why it is difficult,” he said.



“The fact is, if we can teach young people -- and people, generally -- not to start, it's really, really easy not to take them, and I think that's going to end up being our most important thing. Really tough, really big, really great advertising, so we get to people before they start, so they don't have to go through the problems of what people are going through,” Trump said.



The administration is planning “a massive advertising campaign to get people, especially children, not to want to take drugs in the first place, because they will see the devastation and the ruination it causes to people and people's lives,” the president said.



He said opioid addiction affects every part of society - “not young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural has been spared.”



In West Virginia, for instance, “there is a hospital nursery where one in every five babies spends its first days in agony.”



“Because these precious babies were exposed to opioids or other drugs in the womb, they endure nausea, pain, anxiety, sleeplessness, and trouble eating, just the same as adults undergoing detox,” the president said.



“Some of these children will likely lose one or both of their parents to drug addiction and overdose. They will join the growing ranks of America’s opioid orphans - such beautiful, beautiful babies,” Trump said.



“Beyond the shocking death toll, the terrible measure of the opioid crisis includes the families ripped apart and, for many communities, a generation of lost potential and opportunity. This epidemic is a national health emergency, unlike many of us we've seen and what we've seen in our lifetimes. Nobody has seen anything like what's going on now,” he said.



“We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic,” the president added.