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

Trump spoke about a week after a White House commission on the opioid crisis led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recommended the president declare it a national emergency.

Trump said: “The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying officially right now it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency. We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis.

“We are going to draw it up and make it a national emergency. It is a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had. You know, when I was growing up they had the LSD and they had certain generations of drugs.

“There has never been anything like what has happened to this country over the past four or five years. And I have to say this in all fairness, this is a world wide problem, not just a United States problem. This is happening world wide. But this is a national emergency We are drawing documents now so we can so attest.”

The declaration could help unlock more support and resources to address the drug overdose epidemic, such as additional funding and expanded access to various forms of treatment, and it gives the government more flexibility in waiving rules and restrictions to expedite action.

National emergencies are typically declared for short-term crises, such as the Zika virus outbreak or a natural disaster. It is unclear what Trump’s declaration will mean for a complex, long-term public health problem.