Pop superstar Justin Bieber recently made waves, especially in the cannabis community, when he tweeted out the link to a video that shows how big pharmaceutical companies are blocking the advancement of medical marijuana every chance they get.
This is important. A friend showed me this. I'm going to be talking more about this. We all need to pay attention https://t.co/u4tzbEkFo5
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) October 2, 2016
As of this writing Justin has nearly 89 million followers on Twitter. The tweet itself has over 30,000 retweets and 64,000+ likes. That’s quite a bit of people who have probably never looked much into the issue of medical marijuana.
The video itself, from ATTN:, has well over 7 million views and packs a lot of information into 49 seconds, including some of the companies giving big bucks to fight medical cannabis legalization and why they are doing so. Recent studies have shown a drop in the need for opioid painkiller prescriptions in states that have legalized some form of medical marijuana.
While this is information many of us are aware of, it’s not a stretch to say that most of Justin Bieber’s fan base may not be. Many of them are teenage girls, girls who will be eligible to vote in a few years. While it may seem sometimes like teens care about very little that happens in the “real world”, it’s also true that they can be very passionate about the things they do care about.
Celebrities like Justin Bieber can also do a lot to combat the misconceptions about cannabis that are still being peddled in our schools. At the very least his tweet will go a long way in causing some teens to look further into the issue.
And when he says “I’m going to be talking more about this,” let us hope he keeps his word. A lot of speculation as to who his “friend” is would be quite futile, but it very well could be someone who has had their life affected by an ailment that cannabis has been effective in treating. After all, that’s how many people come to find out the amazing abilities of the cannabis plant.
In the end, Big Pharma has to cringe at all the publicity their actions are generating. As much as they would like people to think they are protecting them from the evils of non-FDA approved cannabis, most see through that to the real bottom line: Big Pharma knows its destruction lies in the success of medical marijuana and they are trying to protect their profits.
That’s a natural reaction for an industry, but it’s too late. They must embrace medical marijuana and try to get a late start in that industry or risk being relegated to the status of other irrelevant industries, like VHS/DVD rentals and pay phone manufacturers.
