MJ Biz Daily: Twitter to allow ads for cannabis, THC products in United States. “In a major policy shift, Twitter Inc. is allowing ‘approved’ and state-legal cannabis companies and other advertisers to post ads in the United States for regulated THC and CBD products, accessories and services, the social media platform has disclosed.”
Washington State University: Pro-cannabis social media linked to youths’ intentions to use. “Despite laws against advertising cannabis to teens, young people reported in surveys that they still see a lot of positive cannabis messages through social media posts. Washington State University researchers found these messages were also connected to the teens’ intentions to use cannabis, and for college students, with their actual use. Anti-cannabis messages also had an effect in lessening use-intentions, but young people saw less of those types of messages.”
Marijuana Moment: Google Ends Ban On Advertising Certain Hemp And CBD Products In Parts Of U.S.. “Google will no longer ban the advertising of certain hemp and CBD products in select parts of the U.S. starting next month. The internet giant announced last week that it would be updating its ‘Dangerous Products and Services and Healthcare and Medicines’ to permit the cannabis advertising in California, Colorado and Puerto Rico.”
Philadelphia Inquirer: After 20 years, longtime N.J. marijuana activist officially changes his name . “NJWeedman.com began actively protesting marijuana laws in Trenton after spending 17 months in prison in the late 90s. He said he purchased the website in 1998.”
Oxford Mail: Cannabis farmer’s lawyer forced to use Google Translate to talk to client as interpreter fails to show. “Prosecutors dropped charges against a cannabis farmer who claimed to have been enslaved into the drugs trade – and whose lawyer was forced to use Google Translate after an interpreter failed to show-up for a second time. Pham Hoang, 18, was found in a flat in Underhill Circus, Barton, on July 19. The flat had been converted into a commercial-scale cannabis farm, with 270 plants growing in the property.”
BusinessWire: Leafly Launches Unique Data-Sharing Program to Advance Cannabis Research (PRESS RELEASE). “Leafly is the informed way to shop for weed and its cannabis data library includes tens of thousands of cannabinoid and terpene strain profiles from the Leafly-Certified Labs Program, subjective strain effects from consumer reviews, and cannabis popularity metrics.”
Cannabiz: Google and Facebook urged to drop ban on cannabis advertising. “David Beckham-backed UK firm Cellular Goods has launched a petition urging Google, Facebook, Instagram and others to end the ban on the sale and advertising of CBD and CBG on their platforms. The company, which specialises in wellness consumer products formulated with lab-made cannabinoids, has joined forces with seven other firms to call for an end to the ban.”
Marijuana Moment: California Officials Launch New Marijuana Map Revealing Which Areas Are Still Blocking Businesses. “California officials launched a new resource on Thursday, providing people with an interactive map showing where marijuana businesses are permitted—and where they are blocked from opening—throughout the state.”
PennState: New app shows how cannabinoids could interact with other medications. “CANNabinoid Drug Interaction Review (CANN-DIR) is a free web-based resource that evaluates cannabinoid products such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD or a combination of both (THC and CBD) in a single product against a database of common over-the-counter and prescription medications…. Users select the cannabinoid product a patient is taking and then choose other medications they are using. CANN-DIR then provides information about how the THC and/or CBD product could potentially affect the metabolism, or breakdown, of the other selected medications.”
The Guardian: How the pandemic created a new generation of stoners. “The Covid-19 nightmare sparked a number of shake-ups to the social order – a burgeoning anti-work movement, a sharp economic swoon, and tiresome new polarities in the culture war. But as lockdown orders marched on, many weed agnostics dived in to the community with gusto, forming a new cohort of pandemic-era stoners. According to the data analytics firm Headset, legal marijuana sales increased by 120% in 2020, and 61% in 2021, and Fortune reported that Americans bought $18bn worth of cannabis in our first coronavirus year, $7bn more compared with 2019 transactional figures.”
Google Blog: Explore Bob Marley’s most extensive archive ever. “My father, Bob Marley, is one of the most known people in the world. I mean, some people feel as if they know him personally, that’s how much history is out there, yet there is so much that is unknown. Bob Marley still holds mystery. We all are still learning new things about him, and some people may just be discovering him. In this mission we are happy to be partners with Google Arts & Culture to compile and exhibit in one online location the most extensive collection of Bob Marley artifacts.”
University of Queensland: Getting high for “likes” – TikTok exposes teens to videos on cannabis. “Teenagers are being exposed to videos on social media platform TikTok that portray cannabis-use as funny and entertaining rather than risky, University of Queensland researchers have found. Lead author and PhD student Brienna Rutherford from UQ’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research said the research analysed 881 publicly available videos to determine how cannabis-related content was seen by users.”
Daily Beast: Cannabis CBD Might Be Highly Effective at Preventing COVID. “New, peer-reviewed research published Thursday in Science Advances suggests the popular non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known as cannabidiol, or CBD, can help prevent the novel coronavirus from replicating in human cells, reducing the chances of a full-blown infection. Another arm of the study also found that real-world patients who were prescribed CBD experienced lower rates of COVID-19.”
UPI: Marijuana advertising on social media targets kids, study shows. “Some recreational pot shops are using tricks from the old playbooks of alcohol and tobacco companies to target underage users on social media, a new study reports.”
Oregon Health & Science University: Cannabis resource for health care providers, researchers launches Jan. 10. “In light of the widespread availability of legal cannabis, Oregon Health & Science University today launched a new web-based tool designed to help clinicians and researchers evaluate the latest evidence around the health effects of cannabis.”
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