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Researchers have tracked more than 300,000 social media posts ahead of this month’s referendum to find a mostly favorable kiwi opinion of cannabis, at least on Twitter.
Their study, published today in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, found that nearly two-thirds of those tweets, collected over more than a decade, had a positive view of the drug.
And while the researchers say the number of negative or anti-cannabis tweets has increased in recent years, most of the referendum-specific tweets in 2020 still supported legalization.
A sample of the tweets included in the study offered several humorous examples.
One read, “The bus broke down. Let’s smoke some weed!” While another Twitter user posted, “I’m high and crazy with enthusiasm for K-fry [KFC]. “
Tweets that weren’t as supportive of cannabis argued that it carried mental health risks and caused physical problems like “lung bong.”
One person wrote: “Wellington absolutely reeks of weed. It’s disgusting.”
Researchers, from La Trobe, Otago, Auckland, Sydney, Brown and Miami Universities said the study aimed to assess the views and opinions of Kiwis through tweets.
They used a Twitter sponsored trading platform to access all cannabis-related tweets dating back to July 2009 and found some 304,760 of them.
They then used machine learning to encode the sentiment of the tweets, classifying them as positive or pro-cannabis, negative or anti-cannabis, or neutral.
An example of a “neutral” tweet was: “I feel like everything smells a bit grassy right now.”
Overall, they found that tweets were predominantly positive (62 percent) and there was also a higher proportion of these “pro-cannabis” tweets written in 2020 (65.3 percent) compared to negative or neutral tweets.
For those tweets specifically related to the referendum, the data showed a generally positive view (53.5 percent) of cannabis.
“Both cannabis-related and referendum-specific tweets suggest that Twitter users in New Zealand have a generally positive view of cannabis,” the study authors wrote.
“Given the nature of Twitter, the current method will allow us to study whether opinions towards cannabis change as the referendum approaches and to capture any late changes in sentiment for or against cannabis.”
But the researchers added that one limitation was that they couldn’t get demographics from Twitter, so their sample was likely younger and more educated than the general population.
The study comes as a new poll suggests voters might narrowly lean toward an affirmative vote.
The poll, published by the Helen Clark Foundation and the New Zealand Drug Foundation, showed that 49 percent of respondents support the legislation, while 45 percent oppose it.
When those who responded “unsure” were asked in which direction they were leaning, another 2% leaned in favor of voting in favor of legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.
But the results differ with a recent poll by Colmar Brunton, published on Sept. 26, which showed support for the legislation was fading.
What NZ Twitter thinks of marijuana
Positive
• “Smoke weed everyday.”
• “Marijuana helps with my depression and I sleep much better after taking a hit.”
• “I love going to bed high and feeling good first thing in the morning.”
• “Do you want to protect young Kiwis? The best thing to do is vote YES in the cannabis referendum! #Voteyes”.
Negative
• “Ew no. I don’t smoke weed. I never have, never will.”
• “Finally give up weed. Feel much more productive already #saynopetodope.”
• “Wellington absolutely smells like grass. It’s disgusting.”
• “Vote no on the next cannabis referendum. It is not worth the damage and the impact it will have on young New Zealanders.”
Neutral
• “Cannabis is made up of a variety of different compounds called cannabinoids.”
• “I feel like everything smells a bit grassy right now.”