Haha that is the problem with them.

I had two knee surgeries because I had injured it playing football (the first time) and again while I was fighting (sport fighting not street fighting). The first time, I was able to smoke and the second time I was not (for employment reasons). I noticed that I needed far less Vicodin the first time (despite the surgery being more invasive) and I credit weed for that for the reasons I pointed out. To me, that ability to reduce the need to consume opioids is one of its most valuable uses for cannabis.

As far as the quote goes. I think that type of thing is intentionally deceptive framing to provide an inaccurate picture of what is going on. They will say weed isn't as effective as morphine or whatever at reducing pain but that ignores the value it has in stopping people from needing or needing as much morphine. I think that would go a long way toward keeping people from having addiction issues in the first place.