I don't get it. Cannabis has always worsened my pain, not relieved it. I have chronic often severe back pain and cannabis has always emphasized it. I spent 4 hours thinking constantly about the pain until the drug wears off. I may be a minority, but it hardly inspires confidence in cannabis as a silver bullet.

Opiates however... they really work. They really make the pain go away. Which is why I stay the hell away from them. :-(

I also have chronic pain (fibromyalgia) and have had a similar experience with cannabis. It makes me feel spacey and like I'm dreaming rather than awake. It didn't really reduce my pain at all, only my ability to concentrate on things that aren't pain as a distraction from the pain. Overall it left me in a worse place than before I had taken it.

I've never taken opiates for pain, only occasionally for cough (tussin + codeine during a bout of pnuemonia and again when I had bronchitis, and low dose vicodin once for about a week one winter when my asthma was extremely bad and I couldn't sleep because of the coughing).

Assuming that politicians care more about the opioid epidemic and the actual well-being of their constituents than they do about their public image with their supporters. You really need everyone to catch on to the relative harm of opiates and cannabis.