--- title: Jeff Sessions Is Wrong on Marijuana vs. Heroin, Science Says description: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in prepared remarks that marijuana is only slightly less awful than heroin. Scientists disagree. canonical: https://time.com/4703888/jeff-sessions-marijuana-heroin-opioid/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-16T18:42:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T10:41:08.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Sessions Says Pot Is Only 'Slightly Less Awful' Than Heroin. He's Wrong og:description: That's not what the science says og:url: https://time.com/4703888/jeff-sessions-marijuana-heroin-opioid/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6f371595742f06/69889edff887dc68eae96c13/medical-marijuana-lead.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: medical-marijuana-lead og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sessions Says Pot Is Only 'Slightly Less Awful' Than Heroin. He's Wrong twitter:description: That's not what the science says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6f371595742f06/69889edff887dc68eae96c13/medical-marijuana-lead.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jeff Sessions Says Marijuana Is Only 'Slightly Less Awful' Than Heroin. Science Says He's Wrong > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Story Behind the Viral Photograph of Opioid Victims [Watch (HLS stream): The Story Behind the Viral Photograph of Opioid Victims](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dPSUlrxR.m3u8) (6:12)  _Published 2017-01-23. The East Liverpool, Ohio police department decided to share on social media a picture of a couple overdosed and passed out in a car with a young boy in the backseat. Publishing the photo, say local law enforcement, was the city’s cry for help._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:41 AM UTCPublished: Mar 16, 2017 6:42 PM UTC  Getty Images; Illustration by Kenneth Bachor for TIME by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:41 AM UTCPublished: Mar 16, 2017 6:42 PM UTC Attorney General [Jeff Sessions ](http://time.com/4689960/jeff-sessions-russia-recuse-donald-trump/)said[ in remarks prepared for delivery this week](https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-efforts-combat-violent-crime-and-restore) that he believes [marijuana](http://time.com/4685414/jeff-sessions-recreational-marijuana-legal-crackdown/) is “only slightly less awful,” than heroin. “I realize this may be an unfashionable belief in a time of growing tolerance of drug use. But too many lives are at stake to worry about being fashionable,” reads his [prepared statement](https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-efforts-combat-violent-crime-and-restore) Wednesday during an appearance with local and federal law enforcement officials in Richmond, Va. “I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store. And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana — so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful. Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.” Sessions veered from the script and did not say marijuana is “only slightly less awful” during his speech, though it remains in the remarks on the Department of Justice website. Scientists who study marijuana [disagree](http://time.com/4448757/7-scientific-effects-of-marijuana-that-experts-want-to-study/) with his position. “The statement flies in the face of the science,” said Dr. Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California San Francisco, who has studied the health effects of marijuana. “No one has died from an overdose of cannabis. There’s abundant evidence that it is a useful intervention for chronic pain, and we may see it’s useful in harm reduction.” In the United States, more than half-a-million people have died from drug overdoses from 2000 to 2015, and currently an [estimated](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/) 91 people die every day from an [opioid overdose](http://time.com/4677394/donald-trump-opioid-epidemic-and-rising-drug-costs/). In January, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine[ released a committee review](http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=24625&%5Fga=1.172863584.235057739.1484262362) of all research on the health impacts of cannabis since 1999, and reported that there’s substantial evidence to suggest marijuana can help people dealing with chronic pain — and that it could be an alternative to opioids. (Abrams served on the committee.) A 2015 [analysis](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2338251) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported a 30% or more reduction in pain from cannabinoids — compounds from cannabis — compared to a placebo. Studies suggest cannabinoids interact with receptors in pain activity centers located in the brain and spinal cord, and may have anti-inflammatory effects. Whether marijuana can help someone overcome an opioid addiction is unknown, but research suggests that states that have legalized medical marijuana have experienced drops in opioid-related deaths. In [a 2014 report](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1898878), Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, an assistant professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, found that states with legal medical marijuana experienced 25% fewer prescription drug overdose deaths compared to states where medical marijuana is not legal. “For some patients with chronic pain, medical marijuana should be an option,” Bachhuber said. “Anecdotally, I’ve seen patients cut down on use of opioids when they start using medical marijuana.” In the U.S., marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse. Many researchers argue that classification isn’t supported by evidence, and that it [makes marijuana harder to study](http://time.com/4448757/7-scientific-effects-of-marijuana-that-experts-want-to-study/). While opioid addiction tends to be long-term and difficult to successfully overcome, a [2015 study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26212076) found that after three years, 67% of people that could be diagnosed with cannabis use disorder no longer met the criteria. “I’ve been a physician for almost 40 years and I’ve never admitted a patient for complications from cannabis use,” Abrams said. “The number of patients we see with problems with use of alcohol, heroin, and methamphetamine is enormous. \[Sessions’\] statement is unfortunate and uninformed.” ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] When I observed her And then her color, I thought she was deceased at that point. As a police officer, they train you to expect the unexpected but even as much time I've had on, 3: 11 in the afternoon, that was the first thing from my mind. [ MUSIC ] On that day, I was actually on my way into work. I ended up behind this vehicle. I noticed that it was driving what I termed as erratic. After I made contact with the driver and he actually went unconscious, I wanted to render first aid and call for assistance. When I showed up, that's when I observed both of them passed out and near dead. It was during school time, I saw a lot of people there with their kids. There was a bus stop right there where all of this was happening. And the first thing I saw coming from my angle, is I saw, there's a kid in the backseat. I went around the back end of it Open the door up. He was really shy, really scared and I don't blame him. I could just see the pain and the trauma in his eyes. I decided to take several photographs to document the incident for court room evidence. I just unfastened the boy from his car seat and he eventually turned and looked at me and just like Climbed up on me, and he's wrapped around here on my side, sitting on my gun belt, and I could just feel this little kid's heart pounding, you know, right up on my ribcage here. I was calling for children's services, and our dispatcher called back saying they need some information, and I was pretty heated, I'm not gonna lie. I yelled back over the radio. Just tell them get their butts here now. Fred says, well let's send them a picture of this, and then they'll see why they need to get their butts here. [ MUSIC ] I was born and raised here in East Liverpool, it's a great place to grow up. You learn a lot about hard work. Unfortunately since that time, things have really deteriorated 75 % of our population receives some form of assistance from the federal government. And that's really the tragedy that we're dealing with here. Right now opioids are definitely our biggest problem. Cuz people are dying from it. This is what we're seeing lately. It's not just heroin. It's fentanyl, the car fentanyl. That's where they're overdosing because they're so strong We had an epidemic and not only us. people are passed out here. Small town America does. [ MUSIC ] He won't move getting up man. Cross countries every small department [ MUSIC ] We're fighting and fighting and fighting this. It's frustrating. We're losing the battle. We are. We're losing. [ MUSIC ] We're trying. We're gonna keep fighting but we're losing. This is something that's been stirring for the past five, six years and I think it's culminated into one big incident now. After the driver had pled guilty, The police chief showed me the photograph and I just stood there silently. I couldn't believe that someone would put that little boy in that position. Sadly it happens a lot but this is the first time where it was actually captured in a photograph. We were all in agreement that it should be seen. We talked about how we could Alter the child's face. You couldn't get the story and unfortunately as a public official it's a felony for me to blurb that photo. There's no number of words that can paint that type of picture. Coming into work the next day I could not believe the views that the picture had and how many times it was shared. We kinda looked at each other like Well good. Good, let's get this out there. Releasing that picture made things happen immediately that probably would not even have happened at all or at the very best would have taken years. It definitely got him out of there and that was the most important part. That picture started getting Agencies and policymakers and law enforcement, talking about the epidemic that's going on. And it drew attention to more resources, access for people needing treatment. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We're opening a new clinic in East Liverpool, in conjunction with the outpatient services we already have, due to the need in the community [ MUSIC ] Look what's happened, our little community of 13, 000. We live in a day and age, unfortunately, where people think there are no lines. That anything should be out there. It's fair game in these type of circumstances. And here we're dealing with a four- year- old little boy who can't necessarily make those type of decisions as to whether or not he wanted to be in that photograph. The family has been trying diligently though to protect him. 20 years from now, is it gonna be that this is image of the heroin epidemic. As a clinician, I feel that it's my job to be able to advocate for people that are shriveling with addiction. I think that posting photos of addicts does probably have them feel pretty shameful and embarrassed. These pictures might keep somebody from reaching out for help, cuz they feel nobody cares about me. They should have just let me die and not use that Narcan. We know what we did. We're all confident in what we did was right. So if it upsets you, I'm sorry. But this is reality. I would do it again. If the same situation arises tonight, that will be posted. I never would have dreamed that this picture would have had the power that it has. That your sitting her interviewing me. Get people from the state calling me to help. They never called me before. That's all from the power of one picture. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4703888/jeff-sessions-marijuana-heroin-opioid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4703888/jeff-sessions-marijuana-heroin-opioid/"},"headline":"Jeff Sessions Says Marijuana Is Only 'Slightly Less Awful' Than Heroin. 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