If Cannabis Is “A Potential Way To Prevent COVID-19” Then Why Is Trump Blocking Research?

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Sponsored content with no clear author byline which potentially falls into the common intersection of ‘miraculous cure’ and ‘conspiracy to prevent’ that you see everywhere in regards to health.

I’m not sure this should be the ethical standard that BoingBoing holds itself to. Need clear authorship and a structured basis of claims versus evidence, with an acknowledgement of the limitations.

This drags everything closer to the InfoWars-like practice of running everything based on selling dubious supplements. If you want to have any sort of ‘health company’ sponsorship, you really need to set barriers for what’s acceptable coverage or not.

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Is this another BoingBoingStore ad for CBD?

edit: I thought I was joking, then I noticed the “sponsored” tag

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That we literally just uploaded like three months ago.

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Disclaimer: I’m not a Trump supporter.

People need to quit trying to blame POTUS (any active POTUS) when things don’t go their way. No president is responsible for everything that goes on in the government, nor can he expected to be. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

Failure to allow research has been a problem for decades, not just now. I’m sure the person calling out Trump for not allowing it didn’t call out Clinton or Obama for the same. Pure hypocrisy.

Things are definitely getting better, but The current social atmosphere in the US shows how change is never going to happen overnight. Instead of bashing a president, people should try to use their brains to be more productive in advocating advances. If you can’t figure out how to so that, your opinion on how things are managed is irrelevant and unnecessary.

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Welcome to BoingBoing, and thank you for providing some much needed tone policing here.

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Ehh, CBD is a great, long-lasting painkiller IF taken in large enough doses (usually way above 10mg) and both hemp oil and marijuana oil show (different) anti-carcinogenic properties…but it’s no panacea, not even close, and even appearing to imply it’s a useful COVID-19 treatment is beyond irresponsible.

We already have Dolt 45 and Alex Jones peddling snake oil, dammit.

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You have to smoke it while wearing that weird zipper mask from Boing Boing Store:
https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/you-can-still-enjoy-your-favor.html
Otherwise it won’t work at all.

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Let’s generalize.

Q: If [anything] Then Why Is Trump Blocking Research?

A: Because he wants most Americans to die. He tweeted, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” That’s a signal.

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Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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I’m sure it should not be. But I am not a publisher, so I can do nothing.

Or being added to the list of people who are disappointed.

I’ll continue reading this topic to the end before asking for this. And maybe re-read that sponsored post.
But after my first impression, I could well be disappoint.

ETA: ok, I read this topic to the end. And I looked at the preprintedpaper, and the comments.

The authors are all employed by Pathway Rx, a cannabis therapy research company, and Swysh Inc, a cannabinoid-based research company.

Also, everyone, have a look here:

https://www.immunology.ox.ac.uk/covid-19/covid-19-immunology-literature-reviews/in-search-of-preventative-strategies-novel-anti-inflammatory-high-cbd-cannabis-sativa-extracts-modulate-ace2-expression-in-covid-19-gateway-tissues

Importantly,

Appropriate statistics: No.
and
translatability is questionable.
and
Main limitations: Limited n number. Quantification not robust. Stats from n=2? Unclear HPLC analysis of C. sativa extracts and poor characterisation of the ratio between the various components of the plant extract. No ladder on western blot. ECL quantification difficult as GAPDH control is not clear.

Seriously, this is marketing, nothing more and nothing less, and it is marketing on the back of a pandemic.

This is marked as sponsored post. This has a name underneath. I am considering of taking my anger there, but I am, in fact, disappointed that BB ran this.

I know it is a hard life running BB and Ken and others are often going through greater lengths to explain the difficulty of the situation, running a site on ads. And why crowdfunding is not a realistic option.

I also appreciate that this piece is identifiable as sponsored content. I even appreciate the direction it is headed: yes, there is a need for research in cannabis products.

But the ethics of exploiting a pandemic, with more than 500k deaths and many more to come to push for this, using pseudo-science is clear.

#You don’t do that.

And personally, I would not have published this on my site. However, this is not my site. I could just leave, or ignore it. I chose to point it out here and I am now reclusing (with an L) from further discussion of this particular item.

I of course value the site and the community too much to leave because of this. More importantly, I am much inclined to believe this might not bring anyone who isn’t already putting themselves at risk by consuming Cannabis products (especially smoking!) to try cannabis out as a mean of preventing Covid-19. But, just for the record,

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If people read that The Real Estate Swindler is blocking CBD research then maybe Real Tested CBD can sell some CBD. Or Jeffrey Epstein and Roy Cohn frowned on even derivations related to illicit behavior so The Real Estate Swindler and faithful protégé cans CBD research.

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same reason they kept it illegal for so long: it cures cancer, among other things

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Criminally negligent to let crap like this on your site.

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Please don’t post COVID misinformation for money.

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There are much more powerful anti-inflammatories than CBD. Feel free to test any of those on some mice and get back to us. Plenty of similar coronaviruses if you want to get specific. If you really want to go wild, gets some bats and test it on them.

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Sadly cannabis is one of the few things Biden and Trump agree on. They’re both against legalization or even medical legalization. Biden is still back in the 70s wharrr-garbling about “gateway drug” and probably fearing he will lose a way of keeping lots of Black people in prison. Bunkerbitch, is, well, Bunkerbitch - hateful, stupid, and impervious to reality.

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It doesn’t seem like the actual claim even is that it’s prevention, but just a potential treatment. But just the basic claim “X is a potential way to prevent COVID-19,” divorced from the particular context here, is a very bold one. One that’s not equivalent to the subsequent statements, nor, in this case, held up by anything.

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Certainly, and I take several of them, due to gout AND osteoarthritis. But CBD:

  • Does not interact with NSAIDs at all, allowing concurrent use.
  • Is cheaper than the stronger NSAIDs I take.
  • Does not upset my stomach or cause other GI issues.
  • Lasts longer (2-3 days) than any other anti-inflammatory/painkiller I’ve taken, opioid or NSAID, besides piroxicam (extremely strong NSAID, about 3 days reliably).
  • Is heat-stable and can be cooked into foods.
  • Is essentially impossible to OD on.

The painkilling and anti-inflammatory effects of CBD are pretty well-known and researched, actually. What is not even slightly established, however, is effectiveness as a COVID-19 treatment ^^’ .

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And that’s the trouble I have with it. What is the mechanism, if it’s anti-inflammatory then there are multiple paths to establish that. Maybe test a whole slew of anti-inflammatories.

I find it very troubling that CBD is treated as a power panacea. It is only as much of one as aspirin is, albeit weaker in effect. I’ve found little noticeable effect on myself in treating pain. I’m glad it works for some people. I did have some mild success with a CBD ointment, but I found a capsaicin ointment more effective. And menthol ointment (like Bengay) still more effective than either.

I want double blind studies. I want a theory of mechanism before the study is approved. And I want a broad range of controls.

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