Jeff Sessions Wants to Fight Opioid Addiction By Criminalizing One of Its Most Effective Treatments

‘Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced that the Justice Department will focus on “health care fraud and opioid scams” by implementing a pilot program that sends federal prosecutors across cities most affected by addiction and overdoses. Sessions made the announcement in a speech Wednesday in Ohio, where eight people die each day from unintentional overdoses, according to ABC. Meanwhile, he remains a vocal opponent of one of its most proven treatments: medical marijuana.
From 1997 to 2014, the hospitalization rates of people suffering from painkiller abuse dropped 23 percent in states where medical marijuana was legalized, according to researchers from the University of California San Diego. Ninety-two percent of pain patients prefer cannabis over opioids and the rate of mariajuana-related hospitalizations has been unaffected by legalization. Yet Sessions insists there is “more violence around marijuana than one would think,” even as experts have found otherwise. He also says smoking pot is “an unhealthy practice” that should be punished like heroin and cocaine use.’
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