Just ‘Say No’ To Opioids Says Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, aka public enemy number one of the cannabis community, has just made headlines for another one of his patented nonsensical remarks regarding drugs. Specifically, the opioid epidemic that’s currently sweeping the nation.

His message?

Just ‘say no’ to opioids.

Yeah, if it was only that simple, Jeff.

A Puzzling Remark

During a question and answer session at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, Sessions remarked that people need to have a stronger stance when it comes to drugs.

“People should say no to drug use. They have got to protect themselves first,” Session said.

Not only did Sessions  send a seemingly unsympathetic message about a serious epidemic, he also managed to, once again, take a thinly-veiled swipe at the cannabis community by echoing his usual rhetoric about marijuana being a “gateway drug.” Sessions remarked that he’s heard from a number of police chiefs that drug addiction “starts with marijuana.”

Sessions did note he was incredibly frustrated with the widespread epidemic, which has caused more deaths than the AIDs crisis of the 1980’s. Per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were responsible for over 33,000 U.S. deaths in 2015 alone.

He also left a somewhat open-ended remark on Thursday, saying  “fentanyl people are really killers,” referring to the synthetic opioid that is considered up to 50 times more lethal than traditional heroin. However, Sessions failed to divulge who exactly’fentanyl people” might be.

Just ‘Say No’ To Opioids Says Attorney General Jeff Sessions

While Sessions did express his sympathies for the deaths caused by opioids, his words left a somewhat mixed message.

“I do think that this whole country needs to not be so lackadaisical about drugs,” he declared.

Although Sessions certainly has a point, it’s no secret that most of America’s opioid addictions stem from prescriptions handed out by doctors. According to the CDC, almost half of all opioid overdose deaths in America in 2015 were the result of prescribed medications.

Despite Sessions’ beliefs, the best way of fighting the opioid epidemic head-on, would be a widespread legalization of medicinal cannabis. Unlike opioids, cannabis has proven to be a non-habit forming alternative to the drugs currently being prescribed by doctors.

In addition to its wide array of medicinal benefits, it’s also proven to be an effective method for those with an opioid addiction to wean off the drugs. Last month, renowned physician Dr. Oz, while appearing on Fox News, went as far to say cannabis should be considered an ‘Exit Drug‘ for opioid users, rather than a gateway drug.

“People think it’s a gateway drug to narcotics,” Oz said. ” It may be the exit drug to get us out of the narcotic epidemic.”

Michael Correia, the government relations director for the National Cannabis Industry Association, shared a similar sentiment as the television doctor and believes that the Attorney General is out of touch with the true cause of the widespread opioid problem.

“[Sessions] is still repeating the old, tired argument that marijuana is a gateway when there is a lot of evidence that proves otherwise,” Correia remarked.