The impact of Cannabis on the Juvenile Brain is only temporary

03/09/2021 9 min read

the result is that long-term and frequent cannabis use has only a negligible, short-term negative effect on cognitive fun

The most well-known video server, YouTube, has recently decided to delete all accounts associated with cannabis

A few weeks ago, Sam Houston, an experienced cannabis activist from California, noticed a suspicious trend while reviewing his favorite videos. YouTube feeds well-known cannabis growers like Jorge Cervantes or "Vader OG" slowly but surely disappeared under the pressure of the new rules. However, the video creators were not warned in any way.

"They all received the same message: We have determined that this channel contains offensive content. The video was submitted for review of YouTube policies."

Houston, a community manager in San Francisco, was no less impressed than Sam. "These channels have been here long enough and no one has complained. The cannabis videos, which showcased cannabis growing techniques, taught viewers how to deal with the traps and pitfalls of such efforts. Most of them were videos of an informational nature. In no way did these videos contain explicitly sexual or unsafe content for viewers.

Of course, Houston and Sam were not the only ones surprised by the sudden disappearance of cannabis healing videos; they were annoyed and angry. The deletion without warning started less than a month ago. Two years ago, something similar happened with Facebook, which deleted a large number of pages focusing on medical cannabis. Until now, however, YouTube was widely known to tolerate cannabis topics.

YouTube against marijuana

The sudden decision to delete cannabis videos without prior warning or public notice came wonderfully from YouTube, as medical cannabis is increasingly accepted by the general public. In the USA, for example, "marijuana" remains illegal, but only a handful of the remaining states have a complete ban (for medical and recreational purposes).

Consider the example of Dylan Osborn, the founder of the YouTube channel Greenbox Grown. On his channel, Dylan instructs viewers on how to grow cannabis quickly and efficiently for home treatment and without additional costs. YouTube has marked his channel as "inappropriate content" for a few weeks.

Until then, Dylan's channel had 13,000 subscribers and over 200 videos. Most of them focused, along with a few years, on educational content and cannabis strains. He started marking videos on his YouTube channel a few months ago. "But this time it was different, not just labeling," explains Dylan. "It started to disappear. There are many more channels, and ones that have many more subscribers and have been working for many years."

Why cannabis? Why now?

Furthermore, Dylan expresses his frustration and inability to adequately explain how he actually violated YouTube's rights and policies. "You can watch countless other videos on YouTube that clearly violate rights and policies. For example, videos on making explosives for the household and the like." Since then, Osborn has switched to his own agenda, moving videos to his own site and getting paid directly by interested parties.

The ban on cannabis content came shortly after all gun videos were reviewed. Content creators who focused on weapon descriptions and everything around them, like Dylan, went to their own website, where they charged monthly fees. Some tried to move their content to Pornhub.

In April, a report was published in New York Magazine in which a YouTube official said: "We have banned firearms for a long time, but only recently have we warned all content creators dealing with anything related to firearms."

Now it seems that YouTube is taking the same approach with all content dealing with cannabis.

Maybe it's the money from advertising?

One of the many other cannabis creators on YouTube were two YouTubers from California known under the pseudonym "The High Couple". Like many others, their channel was deleted without warning. They lost more than 28,000 honest subscribers. The High Couple received a report about the complete ban on their content, without being able to revoke it in any way or try to adapt their content to the new regulation.

In an email to Leafly, The High Couple described the situation as follows: "The reason YouTube canceled our channel was a violation of community guidelines." Their report did not highlight any particular reason for drugs or creating spam content."

The High Couple concluded from the situation that the real reason was advertising revenue. "YouTube cannot afford to make money from content related to cannabis, marijuana," explains the California creator. "Last year there was an incident that many called the 'Adpocalypse'. Many advertisers were already placing paid ads before videos that are inappropriate or directly harmful to their advertisers. Once YouTube's advertisers' money was published, an algorithm that handles relevant ad placement was quickly updated. Since then, the whole system began to collapse."

Conspirator Alex Jones remains calm, authorizing actions and bans on YouTube began to be under scrutiny

"Advertisers have started pressuring YouTube repeatedly to correct algorithm requirements and prevent content from being displayed before inappropriate videos. This time, however, there was a clear deletion of such videos and channels," wrote Alice and Clark (The High Couple) in their email.

No warning messages from now on

One of the other creators and cannabis enthusiasts who had their content deleted without warning is Kord Tagley. YouTube deleted the entire channel about a month ago. The Tagley channel GreenGenes Garden contained the vast majority of informational videos on how to properly set up lamps and lights in indoor gardens. The channel was originally developed as a marketing tool for Tagley's Pacific Light Concepts, where he sold LED lights.

"Kord Tagley did everything possible to ensure that the content complied with legal requirements and community guidelines. However, it did not prevent YouTube from deleting his entire channel."

Tagley took all necessary precautions, such as a warning at the beginning of the video that the content is unsuitable for children under 21 and the like. Tagley qualified for Google Adsense after reaching the top 10,000 subscribers. The content deletion occurred when he had over 43,000 fans and about 7 million views on his page.

Tagley also earned extra money on the videos. However, the loss of income is not what frustrates him the most. What upset him most is the YouTube approach.

In short, they bypassed the normal procedure where content creators must first be warned three times. Instead of warning, however, the entire channel was terminated.

Normally, live broadcasts are initially denied after the first warning. "Two warnings mean you can no longer upload videos and the third means immediate deletion. YouTube warnings regarding their content. Tangley, however, objected to their warning sign and the warning was withdrawn after review. This time, however, YouTube was writing to receive messages from the Russian government and Google had to intervene."

As an alternative, Tangley now uses TheWeedTube.com, a new video server aimed at the cannabis community.

Migration to PornHub and Instagram

Currently, more and more cannabis creators are appearing on Instagram. From there, creators began directing their fans to Twitch, which recently allowed hemp content. Creators are also renewing YouTube channels under the same nickname to redirect their old fans to a new network.

"VaderOG", a well-known creator of cannabis content, recently uploaded a new video and, as he says, got the first warning sign. "I didn't delete it and uploaded it. I have two warnings. It ruins the newly introduced daily series."

Other creators, in turn, liked the approach of firearms channels - they began to migrate massively to a site unknown for this content, like PornHub.

Nobody could contact YouTube

None of the creators could reasonably contact YouTube. The situation is naturally both unclear and mainly difficult to resolve. "Moreover, you can write if you want to oppose one of their warnings or deactivate videos, but no more than 500 characters," explains Tangley's limited options. "Furthermore, the bots don't seem to read complaints. We usually receive a generated response within a few minutes."

The creators are truly outraged at YouTube. "No one is trying to solve this problem with us in a simple way. They just slammed the door in our faces and cheered when they were done."

Source: www.leafly.com