There’s a piece of news floating around online these days, and it’s confusing people. PolitiFact online publication brings up a headline that had people all excited: “Cannabis May Stop Coronavirus From Infecting People, Study Finds.”
The headline appeared on an article on MerryJane.com that was widely shared on Facebook.
It seems that readers should not be getting all excited about this. The post has been flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to fight fake news and misinformation on the feed.
A preliminary study reveals some results
It seems that there’s a preliminary study that supported some experts’ theory that there are indeed some cannabis extracts that could be used as a part of the treatment or even to prevent the coronavirus infection.
It’s extremely important to note the fact that the study has not been peer-reviewed and there hasn’t been any testing made on humans.
More than that, we also have the following statement: “Yes, this is an overstatement,” Igor Kovalchuk, the lead researcher of the study, told PolitiFact about the headline.
Anyway, for excited people who got happy following the news, it’s important to highlight the fact that cannabis and marijuana are not exactly the same thing.
PolitiFact notes that cannabis refers to all the products that are derived from the Cannabis sativa – the cannabis plant includes about 540 chemical substances.
Marijuana is usually the name used for the parts/products from Cannabis sativa that contain THC – this is the substance that’s responsible for the effects on the mental state.
Long story short, despite the headline of the article that we mentioned above, the study is definitely not saying that cannabis alone could prevent infection with COVID-19, so don’t get (your hopes) high!
Check out more relevant data in the original article.
Also, check out the article claiming that cannabis is the world’s savior.
