Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the government’s decision to endorse powerful prescription painkillers for children was inappropriate in part because “pain is part of life.”

The governor, speaking during a larger conversation about the scourge of overprescribed drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin, that have particularly ravaged New England. Bush lamented that nine in 10 painkiller prescriptions worldwide originate in America. But he saved particular criticism for the decision of the FDA’s recent support of a version of slow-release OxyContin for children.

“This is not appropriate,” he said. “We have to take a pause and recognize that pain is part of life. You have to monitor pain and deal with it. But overprescribing creates all sorts of adverse problems as well.”