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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

#31

Post by thrower123 »

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

You get this with any kind of health-related opinion, on any forum. Just look at anything diet-related, and watch the people spouting vegetarian and vegan propaganda come out of the woodwork.

Health cults have taken over. My theory is that so many people feel powerless in many aspects of their lives, and they fall back on diet and exercise and snake-oil supplements as one corner of life they can over-compensate on.

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

#32

Post by bigfudge »

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…

If alcohol were not legal your comment would make sense. As it is, we reserve the most dangerous (as in, causes most harm both personally and socially) for those least able to cope. Prohibition makes recreational soft drug use less common among those with fewer resources than it otherwise would be, despite the fact that this would be safer than abusing alcohol.

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

#33

Post by vertex-four »

deith wrote: post #30
kgwxd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Your healthcare system also treats people who have got into a vehicle accident or a sporting incident - should buses and cycling also be banned? How about alcohol?

Everything has some risk, and the anecdotal evidence is that weed does not affect the vast majority of adults in a way that would result in additional healthcare needs.

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

#34

Post by actuator »

catalogia wrote: post #23
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.)

Ginger is actually considered as a medicinal herb and is an active ingredient in many traditional medicines across Asia. I think in South Asia ginger tea is considered a very good beverage for relief if you have common cold.

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

#35

Post by actuator »

fjabre wrote: post #26
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.

Propogating false health claims doesn't help people either.

I can claim that good old whisky is the cure for cold if you are mountaineering in extreme climates, but it certainly isn't going to help anyone.

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

#37

Post by ameister14 »

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.

That sounds true but is really not - it's just a way to throw out everything because you don't have a counter.

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

#38

Post by fjabre »

actuator wrote: post #35
fjabre wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Propogating false health claims doesn't help people either. I can claim that good old whisky is the cure for cold if you are mountaineering in extreme climates, but it certainly isn't going to help anyone.

Of course but I don't think there's any debate about which side has been subjected to more propaganda over the years.

Regardless this furthers my argument - that there is not enough research because of said propaganda for any claims to be made in the first place which is the real travesty.

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

#40

Post by cneurotic »

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 experience is something like "Strain Y, when inhaled as a combustible, appears to show effect X."

Another problem is the weed that's available for experiments in the US. There is one — and only one — weed crop that the FDA will approve for clinical studies. From a farm at the University of Mississippi. (https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-monopoly-20140529-s...)

And according to a weed researcher I spoke to (Sue Sisley - https://medicalcannabis.com/about/faculty/suzanne-sisley/), that Mississippi weed is very low quality — aged, with a lot of stems, seeds, and adulterants.

None of this is to say that weed can't be beneficial.

But I'd argue that anyone making any global claims about weed's health benefits are, at the very least, overgeneralizing.

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