In the cannabis industry, we face hurdles while we streamline our networking processes. Mike Robinson, a compassion provider who kicked Stage IV cancer with a heavy cannabinoid regime, found himself kicked off social media for a post he shared on multiple networks. But Robinson, who frequently shares stories about a youth in his care, Genevieve, and her treatment of epilepsy with medical cannabis, only points blame in one direction — the law.
Today, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, flagged a whopping 1974 posts on Robinson’s Facebook account! This massive drawback occurred due to their network slashing the hashtag — #CannabisMyMedicine. But social media accounts must simply abide by rules set by Washington, DC. No Cannabis allowed! Unfortunately, though, current laws force patients taking FDA-approved drugs, such as CBD formulations for epilepsy, to stay hush online. And that cuts out word-of-mouth education, which has alerted many of life-saving treatments. So we spoke to Mike Robinson to help understand his experience with social media, LinkedIn, and medical cannabis.
I even used the wrong hashtag and my message is gone… Yet, on TikTok, I have to keep pushing this button to say, ‘I don’t want to look at this.’ And it’s a lot of people advertising their bodies. It takes a while to get the algorithm so you’re not looking at T&A… And it blows my mind that such an important message — that might mean life or death — is just gone in a heartbeat. —Mike Robinson
Algorithms under Schedule 1
Robinson asserted his opinion on the CEO of LinkedIn. If they were truly aware that one post caused someone’s Professional Network to crash after a decade, they would consider policy revisions. Instagram is especially in competition with Tik-Tok, owned by ByteDance. And, skipping controversies regarding data collection and Bytedance’s association with the People’s Party of China, laws on social media must adhere to global policies if networks want to both mesh and compete.
And we grow too lax.
The cannabis industry is aware that communication across online forums with little to no moderation helped start but also put an end to the vape epidemic. Similarly, major networks struggle to filter dangerous misinformation from good education, leading to extreme measures, including widespread censorship. But the problem with blatant censorship simply leads back to laws set by ruling political powers.
So there’s a meme dropped and the algorithm picks it up. Is it a researcher that’s well known globally doing something that they probably shouldn’t do — being an activist? Or is it something illegal? And it’s very hard, I believe, for the professional networks that have moved along from person to person to administrate.
I think that these paid professional networks are more difficult for us in the role of cannabis because we have to figure out how to get our message out there and also not get in trouble. We’re still working in a situation where the plant is Schedule I and cannabinoids are Schedule 1 — for the most part. — Robinson
Digital ups and downs, and the only source for consumer information
The Journal of Internet Science recently published a study on cannabis across Social Media platforms, assessing web searches from 1974 to 2022. The researchers claim that cannabis discussions online offer a, “rich resource for researchers to investigate medicinal cannabis–related consumer sentiment and experiences, including the opportunity to monitor cannabis effects and adverse events, given the anecdotal and often biased nature of the information is properly accounted for.”
However, anecdotal reports on social media do not always align with scientific evidence. Only 2% of posts regarding cannabis and glaucoma were false, though. And the study found that 14.5% of cannabis-related tweets were generated by bots that frequently post health-related claims. But humans, not just bots, make errors while networking.
And we grow too lax. We move from network to network so quickly, spreading our message, that we grow too lax when we go over to a Professional Network at times. I’ll be sitting behind my dashboards and all these tabs are up on my desktop and, unfortunately, LinkedIn sits right next to Facebook. So, when I move from one to the other, I’m moving the same content from one to the other. And that caused me some serious issues because I believe that, more than anything else, it’s a Schedule 1 substance. — Robinson
A battle with Federal law
But Robinson experienced much more severe censorship after posting cannabis on Social Media years ago, which coincided with the end of his career defending children as a Civil Rights Lobbyist. Cannabidiol and then Phoenix Tears found their way to Robinson when cannabis was illegal after a crash that ended his professional career and left him with epilepsy, temporarily paralyzed. With cannabidiol came a drive to study and explore the potential of cannabinoid medicine; a researcher was born. But compassion providing came into his life as unwarranted as the mysterious man who followed up on a Facebook post with Phoenix Tears. And by following that experience, Robinson met Anne Mari and Genevieve, who has a sister, Sydney.
Today, Mike Robinson can say he beat cancer three times, twice with cannabis. And if that isn’t enough to validate the plant’s medical value, he regularly treats chronic epilepsy with cannabinoids. A blessing he tries to teach and share. But sadly, Robinson’s voice is muffled on LinkedIn and other networks, such as Meta, by censorship that simply follows the prohibitive law of the land.
Follow Uprooted Concepts as we share Mike Robinson’s story in greater detail. He goes deep into how he kicked cancer with cannabis — for the second time — the dangers of recurrence and the unknowns about maintenance doses.
The title photo features Mike Robinson with Genevieve, courtesy of Robinson.
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