It’s open season for flagrant ads to sell illegal drugs like psilocybin, LSD, and other drugs, as Meta works to improve its algorithms to filter illegal content. Because content is being filtered by algorithms, not human beings, sometimes the wrong content—i.e. educational cannabis material—gets taken down while brazen ads to sell drugs remain up.

Some journalists are fed up with the double standard. A Canadian reporter said he was able to get an ad for LSD approved on Facebook, leading a Meta employee to finally remove the ad after the reporter reached out for comment. The National Post reports that Facebook’s automated moderation system approved an ad selling LSD, saying the ad doesn’t violate Meta’s advertising standards. The ad was eventually removed after the reporter contacted Facebook for comment.

Christopher McGrath, a senior manager at Deloitte Canada, said he began seeing ads for drugs on Facebook that he believes were triggered by algorithms while he was researching a recent report  on Canada’s black market cannabis trade.

Deloitte Canada’s report, “Clearing the Smoke: Insights to Canada’s Illicit Cannabis Market,” was supposed to provide data on illegal cannabis sales, but McGrath’s research for it only triggered an onslaught of various cannabis ads on Facebook. So on one hand, Meta wants to filter that content, but on the other, also market ads to users looking for items like cannabis.

University of Toronto media economics professor Brett Caraway, is due to the reliance social media platforms place in machine learning and automated algorithms to police their content.

“When these platforms started, they had departments full of people—actual humans—to sift through the most toxic and horrible parts of the internet,” he said.

“With the amount of content that goes up every minute, there’s just no way humans can put eyes on everything, so they rely increasingly on algorithms and AI for the first round of filtration.”

Facebook responded to The National Post’s inquiries with the following, explaining that when those ads are found they are taken down: “We prohibit content—both in ads and in organic content—that promotes the buying and selling of pharmaceutical and non-medical drugs, and remove it whenever we find it,” the statement reads. “We’ll continue to improve in this area in our ongoing efforts to keep our platforms safe.”

Experts wonder if the decline in online advertising is playing a role and if Meta can’t spend enough on moderation. 

“We’ve seen a lot of major players cut back in the money they’re spending,” Caraway said.

“But Facebook needs that [money]—so if Chrysler or BMW leave, then they have no choice but to take on Jimmy-Bob’s Cannabis Store. Their business model is literally 98-per-cent advertising funded, so they don’t have any wiggle room.”

A History of Censorship

Facebook and Instagram are known for targeting cannabis-related accounts in various waves, taking steps to cut back on illegal drug content. In October of 2018, Facebook placed a pause on cannabis searches. The site justified the ban saying users were selling marijuana products through the social network. Soon, the ban would be lifted

The platforms Facebook and Instagram will close an advertising loophole, joining other tech companies amid the “great vape scare” that took place in 2019. In 2019, an Instagram spokesperson said that Facebook and Instagram will start removing posts that promote vaping, tobacco, or weapons.

Companies that make totally harmless products—such as organic soap and care products manufacturer Dr. Bronner’s—reported posts and ads getting taken down. Dr. Bronner’s experienced similar issues with its boosted posts back in June 2017. 

The company received this response from Facebook after some of its ads were inexplicitly taken down: “This ad isn’t running because it doesn’t follow our Advertising Policies. We don’t allow ads that promote prescription or recreational drugs. Ads like these are sensitive in nature and are usually contrary to local laws, rules or regulations. Please keep in mind that advocacy or awareness ads are allowed…”

Eight Tulsa, Oklahoma-based medical cannabis businesses said that the platform was subjectively censoring their Facebook pages.

A group of cannabis businesses said they have been negatively affected by social media bans, and they are no longer taking the alleged discrimination lying down. Led by the Ye Olde Apothecary Shoppe, eight dispensaries have announced that they are suing Facebook executives over what they call “a pattern of targeting the Oklahoma medical marijuana industry.”

Efforts are being made to control drug ads on social media, particularly in Canada. In Canada, a new online harms bill includes content guidelines for social media platforms and enforcement frameworks meant to hold the tech companies accountable. In newer legislation,  Meta itself would be penalized if it let illegal drug ads stay up.

The post Brazen Drug Ads Wreak Havoc Thanks to Meta’s Facebook Ad Algorithms appeared first on High Times.

The post Brazen Drug Ads Wreak Havoc Thanks to Meta’s Facebook Ad Algorithms appeared first on Paradise Found.

A national provider of workplace insurance for psychedelic therapy recently partnered with two new companies to expand their network and offer ketamine-assisted therapy as a health benefit nationwide.

“Nationwide availability represents a pivotal moment in accomplishing Enthea’s mission of helping employers with workplace mental health challenges,” said Sherry Rais, chief executive officer and co-founder of Enthea. 

Enthea is a company that focuses on providing psychedelic assisted therapies for employee health plans and ketamine is the first and only such drug with known psychedelic and/or hallucinatory effects to be approved in any fashion by the FDA for use in mental health treatments. Enthea recently announced a partnership with two companies: Skylight Psychedelics and Innerwell. Both companies help facilitate remote and in-person psychedelic-assisted experiences.

“Skylight Psychedelics is thrilled to join forces with Enthea,” said Scott Bienenfeld, MD, Co-Founder. “Through our collaboration, we will help people overcome a variety of mental health conditions by expanding access to cutting-edge, often life-saving treatments, such as ketamine-assisted therapy and other emerging psychedelic medicine modalities.”

This partnership allows certain eligible employees to potentially take advantage of ketamine therapy without paying exorbitant fees often associated with the blossoming field of psychedelic assisted therapy, with session prices for a single psilocybin experience exceeding $2,000 in places like Oregon. Estimates for an average price of a ketamine session are all over the place depending on where you look but the most common estimate of an uninsured patient’s cost is $400-$800 per session.

Very few people are currently eligible to take advantage of these benefits, 1,500 nationwide by the estimate Enthea gave to Vice but they hope to get those numbers up to 200,000 by the end of next year.

“Investing in the mental health of employees is critical. Innerwell is proud to partner with Enthea to help future-thinking employers offer ketamine and other medication-assisted treatments that have lasting, transformative outcomes,” said Lisa Kennedy, CEO of Innerwell. “Our team of specifically trained clinicians delivers compassionate care while our data-driven approach will help accelerate the adoption of these new treatments by proving the efficacy of these innovative modalities.”

The FDA first approved ketamine-assisted therapy in 2019 via a nasal spray under the brand name Spravato in conjunction with an oral antidepressant. Since then, a large number of clinics and physicians have begun offering the somewhat controversial practice. Some estimates put the number of clinics between 500 and 750 nationwide but there’s not a national registry so it’s hard to say. In 2022 the market for ketamine clinics was estimated to be around $3.1 billion.

Enthea has been offering coverage for ketamine therapy since last year and touted data from a year of offering ketamine-assisted therapy to the employees of Dr. Bronner’s soap company, saying that employees who took advantage of the service experienced drastic reductions in symptoms related to mental health disorders. Depression symptoms were reduced by 67% and PTSD by 86%, according to data in an Enthea press release. 

“The health and wellbeing of our employees is the primary driver in how we think about benefits and compensation. Offering coverage for ketamine-assisted therapy is in the interest of providing tools to our workforce to have the best quality of life and best options for mental health care,” said Michael Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s in a prepared statement about the program’s launch in 2022. “Our family and company are no strangers to depression and anxiety. We are deeply concerned about the mental health crisis society is facing, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Considering all our advocacy on this issue, this employee benefit is the next logical step.”

Due to the positive data from Dr. Bronner’s case study and the new partnerships with Innerwell and Starlight, Enthea’s provider network has increased significantly enough for them to now offer these services to employers nationwide. Enthea’s benefits packages can be added onto existing health, dental and vision plans according to the press release. 

“The providers in Enthea’s Network are critical to our mission of ensuring access to high quality and affordable ketamine-assisted therapy,” stated Andrew Ninnimann, Enthea’s Director of Networks and Strategic Initiatives. “We remain committed to working with companies at the forefront of innovation as it pertains to developments that are changing the mental health industry.”

Any employers who wish to offer Enthea’s services need only contact them at this handy-dandy little hyperlink to find out more.

The post Ketamine Therapy Offered as Employee Health Benefit Nationwide appeared first on High Times.

The post Ketamine Therapy Offered as Employee Health Benefit Nationwide appeared first on Paradise Found.

Dr. Bronner’s is pushing for psilocybin reform once again. According to state filings, Washington D.C.-based New Approach PAC, a lobbyist group, funded $14,000 between August and September to local firm Grossman Solutions to promote drug policy reform in Connecticut. Dr. Bronner’s is among New Approach’s biggest donors.

CT Insider reports that a task force in Connecticut is examining the efficacy of psilocybin mushrooms for use in therapeutic settings. House Bill 6296, sponsored by Representative Josh Elliot and four other representatives, created a task force responsible for studying the efficacy of psilocybin for a variety of conditions—a key step in legalizing psilocybin for therapeutic purposes. Grossman Solutions will help New Approach engage with Connecticut’s psilocybin task force.

“New Approach’s mission is to end the senseless and destructive policies of the War on Drugs and replace them with policies that prioritize public health, science, healing and community instead of criminalization,” Ben Unger, director of psychedelic policy for New Approach told CT Insider. “We approach this work knowing that the fight to end the drug war is a political fight, and we need to run professional and strategic political campaigns to make progress.”

The task force examining psilocybin includes several current state legislators, academic researchers, clinicians from Yale, University of Connecticut and Midstate Medical Center, and representatives from several state agencies. It also includes former state representative Jesse MacLachlan.

CEO David Bronner is the grandson of company founder Emil Bronner. He said his goal is to free psychedelics, specifically legalization of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes, adding it’s exactly what his grandfather would have done. “The passion of my grandfather was to unite spaceship earth,” Bronner said. “We honor that legacy in different ways,” among them “integration of psychedelic healing in medicine and therapy.” Bronner also said that he believes “psychedelic medicine can really help people heal and wake up, and grapple with pressing problems.”

The funding arrived with a little bit of luck. Bronner admitted that his company experienced “windfall profits from being a soap business in the time of COVID,” and appropriated $15 million for advocacy—half of which went straight toward drug policy reform.

Dr. Bronner’s and Psilocybin Efforts

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps are known for organic materials and sustainable practices. The company was founded in 1948 by Emmanuel “Emil” Bronner, selling castile soap after fleeing from the Nazis in Germany under a rise in fascism. The family’s roots go further back, with soap-making skills dating decades.

More recently, the company shifted its main focus on organic and sustainable practices. Many of the company’s products already contain hemp extracts and/or CBD, among other useful ingredients. Earlier this year, the brand launched into the food market, using organic materials. The company added chocolate to Dr. Bronner’s line of products after the company learned that many of the farmers in Ghana who supply its Regenerative Organic Certified Serendipalm (used in Dr. Bronner’s soaps) also grow cocoa.

In 2019, Dr. Bronner’s pledged support of psilocybin efforts in Oregon, including a public endorsement of Oregon’s statewide Psilocybin Therapy Service Initiative of 2020 (PSI 2020), Oregon’s statewide Drug Addiction Treatment & Recovery Act of 2020 (DATRA), as well as Decriminalize Nature’s efforts to decriminalize natural psychedelic plant medicines in cities around the country including in Oregon.

Oregon Measure 109, the Psilocybin Program Initiative was on the ballot in Oregon as an initiated state statute and approved on November 3, 2020. “We were the major financial backer of Oregon’s 109 measure,” Bronner said.

In November 2020, Dr. Bronner’s released a cannabis-scented soap bar to benefit a new consumer education and crowdfunding campaign to promote the regenerative organic cannabis standard, Sun+Earth Certified. The scented soap bars contain specific terpenes found in cannabis for a unique smell.

The post Dr. Bronner’s Funds Psilocybin Legalization Effort in Connecticut appeared first on High Times.

The post Dr. Bronner’s Funds Psilocybin Legalization Effort in Connecticut appeared first on Paradise Found.