Twitter Chatter About Marijuana

Abstract

Purpose-We sought to examine the sentiment and themes of marijuana-related chatter on Twitter sent by influential Twitter users, and to describe the demographics of these Twitter users.Methods-We assessed the sentiment and themes of a random sample (n=7000) of influential marijuana-related Tweets (sent from 2/5 -3/5/2014). Demographics of the users Tweeting about marijuana were inferred using a social media analytics company (DemographicsPro for Twitter).Results-Most marijuana-related tweets reflected a positive sentiment towards marijuana use, with pro-marijuana Tweets outnumbering anti-marijuana Tweets by a factor of over 15. The most common theme of pro-marijuana Tweets included the Tweeter stating that he/she wants/plans to use marijuana, followed by Tweeting about frequent/heavy/or regular marijuana use and stating that marijuana has health benefits and/or should be legalized. Tweeters of marijuana-related content were younger and a greater proportion was African American compared to the Twitter average. Conclusions-MarijuanaTwitter chatter sent by influential Twitter users tends to be promarijuana and popular among African Americans and youth/young adults. Marijuana-related harms may afflict some individuals; therefore, our findings should be used to inform online and offline prevention efforts that work to target individuals who are most at-risk for harms associated with marijuana use. KeywordsMarijuana; Social Media; Youth © 2014 Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg, Ph.D., Campus Box 8134, Department of Psychiatry, 660 South Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63110, Phone: (314) 362-2152, FAX: (314) 362-4247, rehgp@psychiatry.wustl.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.Conflicts of Interest Dr. Bierut is listed as an inventor on Issued U.S. Patent 8,080,371,"Markers for Addiction" covering the use of certain SNPs in determining the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of addiction. Implications and ContributionTwitter is a popular social media platform among young people. Results from this study highlight the pervasiveness of pro-marijuana Twitter chatter particularly among youth and African Americans and stress the need for more online marijuana prevention messages to target individuals who are most at-risk for marijuana use-associated harms. Twitter is a free-to-use social media platform that has become very popular among young people in recent years [1,2]. Twitter users can easily and instantly connect to a mass audience via Tweets that are 140 ...

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“…60 Five studies analyzed data from Twitter. 57,[63][64][65][66] Other SNSs that were analyzed included Facebook and LiveJournal. …”

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