The post Health Secretary Alex Azar Denies Existence of Medical Marijuana appeared first on High Times.
During a press conference on opioids at an Ohio inpatient facility that treats newborns suffering from prenatal drug exposure, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said, “There really is no such thing as medical marijuana“. The statement came on the heels of questions about the viability of medical cannabis as an alternative to opioid painkillers. So while Ohio is preparing to launch its legal medical cannabis program, Health Secretary Alex Azar denies existence of medical marijuana.
Health Secretary Alex Azar Denies Existence Of Medical Marijuana
Bridge’s Path is an inpatient facility in Kettering, Ohio. Physicians there treat newborns diagnosed with prenatal drug exposure. And increasingly, newborns are suffering from prenatal exposure to opioids.
Deaths from prescription and illicit opioid abuse have skyrocketed in recent years. Today, opioids are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.
Last October, President Trump decried the opioid epidemic as a National Public Health Emergency. But critics blasted the move as largely symbolic.
More recently, reports have surfaced that Trump frequently expresses a desire to execute every drug dealer in America.
Those close to the president qualified his statements as meaning large-volume drug traffickers pedaling synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
During the press conference at Bridge’s Path, Trump’s health chief described the funding the government is devoting to combating the opioid crisis.
“We are devoting hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of research at our National Institutes of Health as part of the historic $13 billion opioid and serious mental illness program that the president and Congress are funding,” Azar said.
Azar