Jeff Sessions apparently thinks pain is a joke. While speaking in Tampa recently, Sessions said “I mean people should be able to take some aspirin sometime. Tough it out.”1
Sessions also mentioned that he thinks strong opioid painkillers are overprescribed in the US. “Fentanyl is the number one killer drug in America,” he said. “Scheduling and restricting all forms of this drug will make it easier for you and your agents to investigate and prosecute the drug traffickers.” While I don't disagree with Sessions when he says that strong opioid painkillers are overprescribed in the US, but I disagree with his ideas how how to control it.
For one thing, Sessions doesn't believe that use of cannabis can curb opioid use and addiction. Researchers found a 6.5-percent decline in opioid-linked deaths after recreational cannabis was made legal in Colorado in 2014.2
There isn't one simple answer when it comes to how to combat the ever-growing opioid epidemic. I'm not naive enough to think that cannabis can just fix it. That may help, but what needs to happen is Big Pharma needs to be held accountable.