A reader on Twitter recently complained that an earlier article referred to the candidates as “losers,” so I’m curious to know how that reader reacted to Vivek Ramaswamay’s opening remark at the GOP primary debate in Miami which used that same word to refer to the modern Republican party. Republicans lost big in Tuesday night’s elections, leading to both an Ohio constitutional amendment protecting abortion access for women as well as the passing of a bill legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults (Senate President Matt Huffman has promised to repeal the recreational marijuana bill, but there’s nothing to be done about a constitutional amendment at this time). 

In addition to big losses in Virginia and deep-red Kentucky, Vivek also brought up national losses in 2018 and 2020 and lamented the failure of the prophesied “2022 red wave” to materialize. He put a hefty amount of blame on Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel for the losses, who, as it turned out, was sitting in the front row. She declined his offer to immediately resign on camera. He also used his opening statement to attack the moderators of the debate and mainstream media in general, pointedly ignoring the opening question that tasked him with describing his virtues compared to those of national frontrunner Donald Trump. He got some applause, he got some boos, and later Nikki Haley told him that he was scum live on national television and was applauded for it. He had a big night. 

Vivek’s Strategy

Wednesday night’s debate was much more substantive than previous events, possibly because a lot of dead weight has been shaken off. Without Doug Burgum, Mike Pence, or Asa Hutchinson taking up space candidates had more room to maneuver and draw distinctions between themselves and their competitors, and no one accomplished this more successfully than Vivek Ramaswamay. 

Several times throughout the night he was able to sharply separate himself from the predictable Republican talking points the other candidates were giving out. He was far ahead of the curve when it came to Ukraine and the United State’s growing, if unspoken, reluctance to continue funding a war that is taking far too long and accomplishing next to nothing, especially in light of increased spending on Israel’s military assault on Gaza. He alone was willing to question the wisdom of simply attempting to ban a social media app with almost 150 million users in America because China built it. He alone noted some difficulties in going to war with a country that happens to do over 150 billion dollars worth of business with America every year. 

Glorious war with China, banning the perfidious TikTok, and assured victory in Ukraine are all things that almost all republican candidates think they have to vocally believe in and support, but they are all also extremely unlikely if not outright impossible. But only Vivek Ramaswamay is apparently willing to go against the orthodoxy. Vivek has always sought to set himself apart from the crowd of established politicians, and on Wednesday he cranked this up a notch.

But Aren’t Vivek’s Numbers Still in the Toilet? 

Boy, are they ever! Immediately after the last debate, a Fox focus group of Republican voters had found Ramaswamay “untrustworthy” and “arrogant”. His numbers in Iowa reflect this attitude. His unfavorables are a disaster and a shocking number of republican voters have straight up said they will never, ever vote for him, no matter what happens or who is still in the race, which is not what you want to hear going into an election. 

Will This Debate Help?

Help him become president? Absolutely not, except in one very, very particular case. It’s important to remember that Chris Christie has the exact opposite opinions on China, TikTok, and Ukraine, and he’s bouncing along the bottom of the toilet bowl underneath everyone else. Republican voters aren’t deciding this election based on foreign policy. In fact they’ve already decided who they want to be president, and his name is Donald Trump. As long as he’s alive and eligible, he is going to be their pick for the 2024 nominee, and every loser on that stage knows it. They stopped running for President a long time ago. Most of them aren’t even running for Vice President; over half of them either worked directly for Trump, or owe their political career to him, and as a result are seen now as back-stabbers and betrayers for having the temerity to run against him. None of them are getting the nod from Trump. Standing behind them is Tim Scott, a weird possibly-50 year old virgin who pronounces the word “do” with three distinct vowel sounds. He’s probably not going anywhere either. 

And then there’s Vivek, who, while deeply unpopular, has not betrayed Donald Trump, and even went out of his way to avoid criticizing him twice on Wednesday night. There’s more than one way to end up in the White House, even if your campaign is a joke and falls apart a year before  the election. Just ask Kamala Harris. 

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In a TikTok video posted on March 10, influencer and doctor Kunal Sood M.D. warned that people who need anesthesia and who smoke pot should disclose that information because of real interactions that can occur. A higher dose of medication may be required for people who smoke regularly, and it’s in the patient’s best interest to plan accordingly.

LAD Bible reports that one doctor is trying to bring light to an issue related to cannabis consumers that has basis in fact—not just a typical scare tactic you may hear from other sources.

“Did you know if you do cannabis (marijuana) long term you will require a higher dose of anaesthesia to achieve the same effect,” his TikTok video reads. “Make sure you tell your anaesthesiologist if you smoke or consume cannabis.”

It’s a simple five-second video, and the doctor simply nods his head in approval, but the video gained over 10 million views at the time of writing. Sood is a double-certified pain doctor and CMO of Avenir Nutrition. He uses comedy and facts to inform people about health issues.

Simply discussing cannabis use with a doctor can make a big difference in their decision for your dose of medicine. The doctor is not suggesting the people quit completely, but simply be honest with their doctors.

In a nutshell, if you consume cannabis regularly, then you will probably need to have a larger dose of anesthesia than someone else in order to be unconscious for your operation and stay unconscious. In the worst case scenario, that could mean not fully knocking out. Waking up during surgery sounds genuinely like one of the all-time worst experiences that a person could have.

It turns out that most experienced anesthesiologists say the same thing. Sometimes it’s recommended to abstain from cannabis for a certain amount of days prior to surgery based on these potential interactions.

Harvard David Hepner, MD, MPH, issued a similar plea in 2020, saying that he’s seeing more people who need different amounts of anesthesia because they consume cannabis.

“The way(s) you use marijuana (smoking, edibles, etc.), how often you use, and how much all can affect how your body responds to anesthesia,” Hepner wrote. “Since marijuana and anesthesia both affect the central nervous system, people who use marijuana regularly may need different amounts of anesthesia medicines. In order to know which medicines and how much to use, your doctor needs to know ahead of time how much and how often you use marijuana.”

The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has a list of eight things that you should tell your physician and anesthesiologist before surgery, and the use of marijuana is one of them.

Recently, detailed and informed advice on the potential interactions between cannabis and anesthetic medications before, during, and after surgery was released. 

The first guidelines on cannabis use and the surgery timeline were published on Jan. 3 by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA Pain Medicine), who acknowledged that up until now there is “no single document” that summarizes all of these concerns.

The guidance is based on known data and recommendations from the Perioperative Use of Cannabis and Cannabinoids Guidelines Committee—a group composed of 13 anesthesiologists, chronic pain physicians, experts, and patient advocates.

The committee answered nine questions and made 21 recommendations.

“While many of the perioperative risks and challenges related to perioperative cannabis, such as how to advise patients preoperatively, the effects of cannabis on anesthetic medications, and the interaction between cannabis, opioids, and pain, have been described in the literature, there is no single document that summarizes all of these concerns and provides evidence-based recommendations,” the document reads.

You might want to listen to what anesthesiologists are saying about cannabis.

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Social media is the double-edged sword of cannabis marketing. Here are five ways to slice through the noise.

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A research study published in Drug and Alcohol Review found that cannabis consumption is mainly depicted as positive on TikTok. However, lead author on the study, Brienna Rutherford, explained the thought behind the study. 

“Social media is a big part of the modern world, with adolescents reporting that they spend an average of eight hours online every day,” said Rutherford, a PhD candidate with University of Queensland in Australia. “Despite this high volume of use, little is known about the potential risks exposure to social media content depicting substance use may have on viewers. However, before you can assess the effects of exposure, we need to know what content is out there and accessible.”

The study, entitled “Getting high for likes: Exploring cannabis-related content on TikTok,” establishes the intent of analyzing cannabis content on TikTok, which has over one billion users, one-third of which are under 14 years of age. An estimated 63% of users between ages 12-17 use TikTok daily.

Seven main categories were defined, including Humor/Entertainment (71.74%), Experiences (42.90%), Lifestyle Acceptability (24.63%), Informative/How-To (7.5%), Creativity (5.4%), and Warning (2.7%).

“‘Humour/Entertainment’ videos often used comedic skits or storytimes to portray cannabis use positively to viewers,” researchers wrote. “Videos frequently featured discussions of users’ personal cannabis ‘Experiences’ through storytimes, re-enactments, and videos taken during active use. ‘Lifestyle Acceptability’ was also promoted using hashtags associated with pro-cannabis use communities (e.g. #cannamom, #stonersoftiktok, #stonertok).”

Researchers estimate that 54.14% of videos (viewed collectively over 417 million times) were portrayed as positive. Also, most of the TikTok users on videos were Caucasian males between 25-50 years of age. Of the videos analyzed for this study, only 50 videos actually depicted consumption, such as smoking, vaping, or eating edibles).

“The main take-home point from this study is that there is a high number of cannabis-related videos on TikTok that are a) publicly accessible via links (even without accounts!), b) have no age restrictions or content warning banners, and c) are promoting use of cannabis to viewers,” Rutherford added. “While many countries are moving towards legalization, that doesn’t mean cannabis use is without risk and none of this content addresses the potential negative health consequences associated with use.”

Rutherford explained the next steps toward identifying the impact of cannabis-related videos on TikTok. “The next step is obviously to assess whether viewing this content has any impact on viewers’ attitudes, behaviors or risk/norms perceptions around substance use,” said Rutherford. “Exposure to text- or image-based substance use content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram have been shown to influence the likelihood of substance use, so it is likely that a more engaging platform and content type (such as TikTok’s short-form videos) may have an even larger influence.”

Researchers also concluded that TikTok takes extra precautions to warn viewers that a specific video contains cannabis. This is similarly done with violent videos, or videos that might portray false information. 

“TikTok has taken some additional steps to regulate the availability of substance related content by removing access to hashtags which explicitly reference substance use (e.g., #cannabis). However, the videos themselves remain accessible—they are just no longer stored under these hashtags,” Rutherford said. “Removing the content or hashtags may also not be an effective approach as creators subvert hashtag rules anyway (using numerical values instead of letters ‘#w33d’ to get around the explicit reference rules).”

Social media channels have become home to many unique cannabis creators, although many other services such as Facebook or Instagram have frequently banned users who create cannabis content. High profile content creators such as YouTuber Chrissy Harless, whose account once had 46,000 subscribers, was recently terminated without an explanation. 

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Searching for 420 friendly TikToks to watch while you pass the time? Check out this list of cannabis Tiktokers to watch while stoned.

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Meet Darcy Michael, the Canadian TikTok star with 1.8M followers tuning in for his hot takes on weed, ADHD, parenting, and relationships.

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