U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency and said his administration was drafting papers to make it official.

"The opioid crisis is an emergency and I'm saying officially right now it is an emergency," Trump told reporters in New Jersey. "We're going to draw it up and we're going to make it a national emergency. It is a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had."

This article originally appeared on reuters.com.