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Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

news.usc.edu

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Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#21

Post by shkkmo »

swiley wrote: post #8
JaumeGreen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's lots of pro-cannabis and pro-LSD comments everywhere. My cynical view is that the "power" wants us all sedated, and it's investing its media to promote the "new" batch of drugs to get another generation hooked up. I do think that there are probably quite beneficial uses of drugs, but probably not in a ludic way as most people prefer to use them.

My first thought when I saw this was of all the people and corporations investing in CBD and whatnot. Most corporations seem to be using adtech and social media (which are really the same) to perform mass manipulation. When that’s combined with all the crazy financial tools people can make a lot of money. I think if lawmakers actually wanted people using drugs for the effects then drugs would be legal, I would argue…

I would personally find it more likely that these tweets are part of the ramp up phase of trying to attract real followers to then spread other messages. These are the sort of tweets that I would imagine are fairly popular with a certain segment and lead to the retweets and followers that give bots more reach.

The market for cannabis is so undeveloped and unstable that it seems unlikely that such marginal market growth tactics would see as much return as they do in more established markets.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#23

Post by catalogia »

geff82 wrote: post #16

Recently, a friend came to me with a list of all the health benefits that are attributed to cannabis. I sent him back a list of all the health benefits attributed to good old ginger - and they matched almost one to one. Health claims concerning cannabis are usually just for those who want to consume a drug and feel better about themselves.

Maybe not the best example, ginger seems legitimately medicinal to me. I've not found anything better for settling an upset stomach than real ginger (not "ginger ale" soda pop.)

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#24

Post by [deleted] »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #18
shkkmo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the federal level, weed is still classified as schedule 1. The federal government's stance has served to place severe restrictions on exactly the sort of research you seem to be calling for. There is certainly some evidence for health and even psychological risks, but none that I am aware of for "brain damage", which is why you are likely to be downvoted.

I have smoked weed heavily in my late 20s, ingested many types of edibles, topicals, etc. I am certainly not as sharp as I used to be. It can cause brain damage indirectly due to changes in your cardiovascular system. It can mimic a temporary sort of vascular dementia, as well as increase your blood pressure to very unsafe levels. Weed can also reduce the amount of grey matter in your orbitofrontal cortex. Not to men…

[deleted]

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#25

Post by Lewton »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #18
shkkmo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the federal level, weed is still classified as schedule 1. The federal government's stance has served to place severe restrictions on exactly the sort of research you seem to be calling for. There is certainly some evidence for health and even psychological risks, but none that I am aware of for "brain damage", which is why you are likely to be downvoted.

I have smoked weed heavily in my late 20s, ingested many types of edibles, topicals, etc. I am certainly not as sharp as I used to be. It can cause brain damage indirectly due to changes in your cardiovascular system. It can mimic a temporary sort of vascular dementia, as well as increase your blood pressure to very unsafe levels. Weed can also reduce the amount of grey matter in your orbitofrontal cortex. Not to men…

> in my late 20s

> I am certainly not as sharp as I used to be

It's called turning 30 :-)

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#26

Post by fjabre »

geff82 wrote: post #16

Recently, a friend came to me with a list of all the health benefits that are attributed to cannabis. I sent him back a list of all the health benefits attributed to good old ginger - and they matched almost one to one. Health claims concerning cannabis are usually just for those who want to consume a drug and feel better about themselves.

Can you blame them? Last time I checked ginger wasn't subjected to 70 years of war on drugs propaganda. Never heard of anyone thrown in jail for consuming ginger.

Maybe people want to consume a drug without being labeled and stereotyped by people who say all drugs are bad and that getting high is a sin.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#27

Post by fiblye »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #6
deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

There's lots of pro-cannabis and pro-LSD comments everywhere. My cynical view is that the "power" wants us all sedated, and it's investing its media to promote the "new" batch of drugs to get another generation hooked up. I do think that there are probably quite beneficial uses of drugs, but probably not in a ludic way as most people prefer to use them.

I think at least with regards to HN, it's that the average user is, just being honest, wealthy and from a very privileged background without too much lifetime difficulty. There's a disproportionate number of people here who can and did walk into Silicon Valley and said something along the lines of "give me 10 million dollars and I'll make a phone app", then have the free time and comfortable fall back to write a failure report about "their journey." I'm not saying that's all or even most of the people here, but it's a larger proportion compared to probably any other community on the internet.

I mention this because many of the strongest "let's decriminalize (or even legalize) all drugs" commenters have similar backgrounds. Comfy financial situation and room to experiment with the peace of mind knowing that they have people to help dust them off should they get a little sloppy with their drug use. These people can afford to take a week to enjoy an ayahuasca resort, follow it up with a beach vacation and a little MDMA, then return home to a daily bowl of weed to relax from their hard month of partying and pop a couple addies to get focused and pull an all-nighter on their new web app. They can financially and mentally afford to use drugs as mood and mental enhancers. Loads of people who aren't so comfortable use drugs to numb the rough edges of life. Having been on this site for over a decade, I've seen loads of comments that make many users here seem completely out of touch with what average people go through--many HN users on another plane of existence.

I think a considerable number of people who promote drugs everywhere have good intentions, but they don't really consider the effects for most people. The aspect of being locked up for drugs does do a lot to tarnish lives, but the mere act of having easily available mind-altering substances is also enough to ruin the lives of many.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#28

Post by normalnorm »

geff82 wrote: post #16

Recently, a friend came to me with a list of all the health benefits that are attributed to cannabis. I sent him back a list of all the health benefits attributed to good old ginger - and they matched almost one to one. Health claims concerning cannabis are usually just for those who want to consume a drug and feel better about themselves.

Is your friend called "straw man", by any chance?

And hey, people feeling better about themselves is not such a bad thing, especially when the world is so full of judgemental pricks who can't seem to be able to mind their own business or keep their religious superstitions to themselves.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#29

Post by kgwxd »

deith wrote: post #19
shkkmo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the federal level, weed is still classified as schedule 1. The federal government's stance has served to place severe restrictions on exactly the sort of research you seem to be calling for. There is certainly some evidence for health and even psychological risks, but none that I am aware of for "brain damage", which is why you are likely to be downvoted.

US is not the only country in the world, and there have been studies linking teenage use to psychosis and schizophrenia

There have been studies linking just about any outcome to any behaviour, anyone with enough money has ever wanted.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#30

Post by deith »

kgwxd wrote: post #29
deith wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US is not the only country in the world, and there have been studies linking teenage use to psychosis and schizophrenia

There have been studies linking just about any outcome to any behaviour, anyone with enough money has ever wanted.

I agree with you science nowadays is mostly junk. On the other hand if we can choose to ignore any study that links X to something bad, then this is a conversation not worth having.

Myself I like to err on the side of caution, since my country has free healthcare which means I have to pay for the mistakes of others, so I don't want them making mistakes in the first place. They should feel free to smoke all the weed they want and become psychotic drones in the fucking Congo

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