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Devolver Digital is running into trouble with its game, Weedcraft, despite cannabis entering into an age of legalization. The game is about managing a cannabis business from startup to empire, but the videos have been demonetized on YouTube. Facebook is also causing trouble with the game which covers multiple scenarios from prohibition to full legalization. Treatment of the game on those, and other platforms, has been inconsistent.
"It's really hard to say how the game will be affected," Wilson told me. "A lot depends on how much [digital marketplaces] Steam and GOG continue to support its visibility and how many people share the story. All we can do is try to make a conversation happen around the industry and with gamers about this insanity and try to make changes. "
Wilson also pointed out that both YouTube and Facebook run ads for hyper-violent video games. Assault is illegal pretty much everywhere, whereas recreational weed use is legal in many states, such as California, Colorado, and all of Canada.
"We all know that violence/murder is A-OK, and that sex or drugs are not, even when presented in a thoughtful way to an audience with an average age of 40, but we've all known that for far too long," he said.
See also: YouTube, Facebook put up ad roadblocks for Weedcraft, Inc. business sim
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Sunday April 14 2019, @10:49PM (2 children)
That has not been proven. [wikipedia.org]
What's more, this syndrome is only seen in a tiny population of heavy, daily users who maintained that behavior for *years* [nih.gov].
A tiny minority of cannabis users are long-term, *daily* users. Of that tiny minority, only 6% exhibit symptoms of CHS. It seems as if it's not an issue for the vast majority of cannabis users.
As I said a few weeks ago [soylentnews.org]:
If a few hundred people heavy users out of tens of millions of cannabis users need to go to the ER or take hot baths, it's a small price to pay for stoipping the practice of making up to 1/6 of the US population criminals. What's more, the money saved on enforcement, interdiction and incarceration, plus the tax revenue raised, more than covers any additional ER costs and would easily cover treatment facilities for those who manifest abuse issues.
And even among those heavy users, like most people, if something is making them sick, they'll likely stop without any intervention at all. CHS does affect a very small number of people, but given the size of the population affected, it's neither "insidious" nor potentially fatal (see link above -- in the one fatality associated with CHS, the patient already had a much more serious, potentially fatal disorder [wikipedia.org]).
Note that I am not advocating cannabis use, nor am I claiming that cannabis use is free of risk or potential harms. However, using CHS to advocate for keeping cannabis illegal is absurd and, at best, a strawman.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Monday April 15 2019, @02:25AM (1 child)
> That has not been proven
https://www.businessinsider.my/marijuana-syndrome-vomiting-nausea-symptoms-do-i-have-chs-2019-4/ [businessinsider.my]
On her birthday, Denney received her son’s coroner’s report. When Smith died, he had been severely dehydrated, according to the document. The cause of death on the report, which Business Insider viewed, read “dehydration due to CHS.”
>However, using CHS to advocate for keeping cannabis illegal is absurd and, at best, a strawman.
I literally started my post with "I'm all for legalization". We need legalization so we can get more clinical studies about the health benefits and risks of cannabis.
The problem is, CHS is a not at all understood disease with very late, sudden onset. It could be that a lot of people will be affected after using cannabis for 20 or 30 years, such that with the legalization of cannabis there will be a sharp spike of hospitalizations ten years from now as all of the CHS kicks in. We're seeing more and more cases now, but that could still be the long tail of a normal distribution curve. If/when the 60% +-1 standard deviation part of the curve kicks in, it would cause a medical treatment problem.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Monday April 15 2019, @02:51AM
Yes. Yes you did. And when re-reading your post after I finished mine I saw that and was more than a little embarrassed. My apologies for ignoring that portion of your post in my reply. I shouldn't have implied that you feel otherwise.
And yes, I'm not claiming that CHS is bullshit or that it isn't potentially serious. Research is certainly needed.
However, I'd posit that at least some (if not most) of the nausea/vomiting and ER visits related to using cannabis are folks who are using edibles and ingest too much cannabis all at once. I've seen that happen on a bunch of occasions, even with folks that smoke/vape quite a bit. The symptoms are usually nausea and vomiting, just like CHS.
Which is why I'll agree with you again that more research is needed. But it's not really all that surprising. It seems obvious that putting large quantities of chemicals into your body over years or decades may have deleterious effects (e.g., ibuprofen) on your health.
Another good example is long-term use of alcohol, which is linked to all sorts of maladies which have much higher rates of mortality than CHS.
Once again, my apologies for ignoring the clear and unambiguous statement in your post.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr