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

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

#51

Post by vasco »

account73466 wrote: post #50
cneurotic wrote: post #40

There are so many complications when it comes to REALLY understanding the health effects of weed. The science is really tough, and underdeveloped. One problem is that there are so many varietals, and so many different vehicles for administration (smoking, vaping, eating, tinctures, lotions, etc) — that make it hard to announce, globally, that "marijuana does X to your brain." Really, the most we can say after a given…

>> None of this is to say that weed can't be beneficial. There might be a non-trivial impact of weed on climate change if weed consumers produce less kids which according to UNESCO is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint.

It also reduces road traffic and all manner of queues.

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

#52

Post by account73466 »

vasco wrote: post #51
account73466 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> None of this is to say that weed can't be beneficial. There might be a non-trivial impact of weed on climate change if weed consumers produce less kids which according to UNESCO is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint.

It also reduces road traffic and all manner of queues.

Yeah, some rich people don't get why poor people want to have kids and pollute this planet (according to them). Fortune's list suggests that the median number of kids is 2-3.

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

#53

Post by non-entity »

catalogia wrote: post #12
swiley wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What lawmakers want isn't some single coherent thing; you're talking about a profession perhaps most famous for getting in fights with each other. Some politicians may want draconian drug laws because they're involved with the prison industry or prison workers union, while other politicians with different interests might want drug legalization for reasons like those described in the grandparent comment. The distribut…

> Here is my pet theory: many politicians have historically opposed cannabis use because they believed cannabis use makes people lazy and believe widespread use of cannabis could suppress economic productivity.

Or y'know, this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-d...

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

#54

Post by normalnorm »

todd3834 wrote: post #43
normalnorm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds like the two were having a conversation about medical benefits. I think his response was reasonable within the given context. Nothing wrong with feeling better about yourself so long as you are not doing so at the cost of potentially harming yourself or others. Spreading potentially false medical facts is risky because not everyone will do their own research.

We have no way to know if the response was reasonable or not, because we were not privy to the conversation and we were not given a list of the claimed health benefits, so we can't judge for ourselves of do our own research.

This was an anecdote that looks reasonable to the casual reader, but amounts to emotional propaganda if you pay close attention.

The reality is that there are many credible medical uses of cannabis, for example in helping people avoid much more dangerous drugs that are legal, frequently prescribed by doctors and frequently lethal, such as certain opiates. I would like to know if ginger also helps with that.

As with all substances, there are counter-indications to using cannabis. However, massive empirical data shows that it is overall safer than abusing many other legal substances, for example refined sugar. It receives an undue amount of scrutiny, which is not scientific but of a political nature. And make no mistake, the prohibition started for very concrete political reasons that had nothing to do with public health preoccupations. If the US government was truly concerned with public health, it would provide nationalized healthcare in the same fashion Europe does. And again, there is a massive amount of empirical data supporting this assertion. Let's separate politics and religion from science.

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

#55

Post by venatiodecorus »

fiblye wrote: post #27
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.

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 fail…

i think what's really out of touch is assuming that poor, unprivileged people are like children, who need to be babysat and protected from themselves, else they spend all day just getting high. this is classist and incorrect. many people find it simpler to blame the individuals without considering the systemic causes of addiction, but that is putting the cart before the horse.

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

#56

Post by Digit-Al »

> “We want the public to be aware of the difference between a demonstrated, scientifically backed piece of health information and claims that are simply made up.”

The problem is that many of those spreading these kind of messages are the type of people who are convinced that the entire medical industry (Big Pharma) are trying to make everybody ill so they can sell them expensive treatments and that they don't want to develop a cure from cannabis because they wouldn't be able to make money from that, or other such nonsense.

It's quite sad to see home many people swallow such bullshit.

I know a woman who was successfully treated for brain cancer and she is an anti-vaxxer and one of those who spreads memes about the medical industry wanting to keep everyone sick. I just sit there thinking "you're literally living proof that the medical industry is saving lives and yet you sit there at your keyboard insulting the very people responsible for saving your life."

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

#57

Post by wonderwonder »

fiblye wrote: post #27
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.

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 fail…

I agree, drugs can have a negative effect on people but I believe that this affect regarding marijuana use pales in comparison to the negative effect its continued prohibition causes. In the United States it is wielded as an oppressive tool with use "roughly equal among Blacks and whites, yet Blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession."

Those arrested are then affected for the rest of their lives, their criminal history hurting both their social and economic future. The fact that the rich know they are able to get away with it is proof that there is a separate legal system and that legalizing marijuana should be done. I am not arguing that pot cant be detrimental but its very much in the same ballpark as alcohol.

There are people currently non violent offenders spending decades in jail for selling marijuana, something that those same people from comfy backgrounds are now getting rich from. The genie is out of the bottle, its far less detrimental now to just legalize it federally, apply rules similar to those applied to alcohol and let all non violent marijuana offenders out of prison.

Society often looks at people through an odd lens. A rich white guy sitting drinking a couple of scotches at night is approved of, a group of black guys sitting around drinking a couple beers is reason to call the police. Marijuana prohibition does nothing but entrench this view.

https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/sentencing-reform/...

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

#58

Post by throwaway1777 »

superkuh wrote: post #48

Worst of these claims are the (almost literal) "snake oil" companies and sellers that are selling 10mg of CBD to people as a 'dose' and implying or telling them it is anything other than placebo at this level. All professional journal studies that have made claims about CBD do studies that use at least 300mg and more often 600mg as the absolute minimum dose and repeat this daily for weeks. Unfortunately 600mg of CBD…

What makes you think it needs to bind to cb1 receptors to be effective? We’re not trying to get high on cbd, we’re trying to achieve other results.

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

#59

Post by venatiodecorus »

wonderwonder wrote: post #57
fiblye wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fail…

I agree, drugs can have a negative effect on people but I believe that this affect regarding marijuana use pales in comparison to the negative effect its continued prohibition causes. In the United States it is wielded as an oppressive tool with use "roughly equal among Blacks and whites, yet Blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession." Those arrested are then affected for the rest of the…

elon musk smoking weed with joe rogan is really just a slap in the face to every poor black kid in jail over pot

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

#60

Post by smileysteve »

non-entity wrote: post #53
catalogia wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What lawmakers want isn't some single coherent thing; you're talking about a profession perhaps most famous for getting in fights with each other. Some politicians may want draconian drug laws because they're involved with the prison industry or prison workers union, while other politicians with different interests might want drug legalization for reasons like those described in the grandparent comment. The distribut…

> Here is my pet theory: many politicians have historically opposed cannabis use because they believed cannabis use makes people lazy and believe widespread use of cannabis could suppress economic productivity. Or y'know, this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-d...

It's both or all 3.

1. Corporate interests want to reduce hemp use for oil and material to help their dino oil products

2. People buyin that its bad

3. Politicians use it as a way to think people are bad

4. One generation later and the reason is whatever is most expediant.

I believe that 80+% of politicians today that oppose legalization do so genuinely because they grew up being told it was bad and a gateway drug. And they're too ignorant to consider the Nixon quote or that their government has always been bought and paid for to maintain a status quo

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