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Cannabis as Medicine? Overview

It is utterly mind-blowing that people have no idea that Cannabis has been part of the medical prescription landscape for over 20 years. That’s right T. G. A (Therapeutic Goods Administration) trialled and approved cannabis based medicines have been available as an option to alleviate, if only in small ways, some of the symptoms of a couple of diseases or help with recovery from treatment. However, the claims of this plant being a ‘miracle cure’ for just about everything, have existed for of 100 years… yet in no credible and advanced research has any of the properties of the Cannabis plant ‘cured’ anything, ever!

There is no argument that some components of this incredibly complex plant can have some therapeutic benefit, be it ever so small, but deriving such from the plant with out co-opting some of the more detrimental components has proven incredibly difficult. On top of that, the evidence emerging from latest science, sees that some of these therapies, do more harm than good, with the temporary alleviating of a symptom on one hand, and incurring along term genetic harm on the other!

Again if facts and evidence matter to your best-practice health care, then this is the space for you. Make informed decisions based on science, and not quackery!

University of Southern California said unproven health claims coming from pro-marijuana bots on Twitter illustrate “how false statements may drown out solid science on social media”

Cannabis Surveillance With Twitter Data: Emerging Topics and Social Bots

Published Online: December 2019

Objectives. To use publicly accessible data from people who post to Twitter to rapidly capture and describe the public’s recent experiences with cannabis.

Methods. We obtained Twitter posts containing cannabis-related terms from May 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. We used methods to distinguish between posts from social bots and nonbots. We used text classifiers to identify topics in posts (n = 60 861).

Results. Prevalent topics of posts included using cannabis with mentions of cannabis initiation, processed cannabis products, and health and medical with posts suggesting that cannabis could help with cancer, sleep, pain, anxiety, depression, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Polysubstance use was a common topic with mentions of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, meth, mushrooms, and Xanax along with cannabis. Social bots regularly made health claims about cannabis.

Conclusions. Findings suggest that processed cannabis products, unsubstantiated health claims about cannabis products, and the co-use of cannabis with legal and illicit substances warrant considerations by public health researchers in the future. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 19, 2019: e1–e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305461)

For complete research

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Institute for Behavior and Health

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SAMHSA

SAMHSA is committed to improving prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for mental and substance use disorders.