Fake News: New Scientific Study Did NOT Suggest Marijuana Could Lead To Homosexuality

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: New Scientific Study Did NOT Suggest Marijuana Could Lead To Homosexuality

Did scientists just discover pot makes you gay? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a site specializing in fictional urban-themed entertainment stories, or as it is also known, made up stuff.

The story originated from an article published by Huzlers on May 27, 2019 titled "New Scientific Study Suggest Marijuana; Could Lead To Homosexuality" (archived here) which opened:

UNITED STATES - A scientific study by Dr. Dicken Mybutt suggests that not only does marijuana affect a person's sexual experience but could lead to homosexuality. He claims his new study found that men who smoked marijuana were more likely to find other men attractive.

Dr. Dicken Mybutt began his study on marijuana use and its side effects after he lost his wallet and had no money to pay his drug dealer. His drug dealer made him a deal, and he found himself giving his drug dealer oral sex. Dr. Dicken Mybutt claims to be a heterosexual man and believes that marijuana played a significant role in his actions.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

New Scientific Study Suggest Marijuana; Could Lead To Homosexuality

UNITED STATES - A scientific study by Dr. Dicken Mybutt suggests that not only does marijuana affect a person's sexual experience but could lead to homosexuality. He claims his new study found that men who smoked marijuana were more likely to find other men attractive. Dr. Dicken Mybutt began his study on marijuana use and ...

The name "Dr. Dicken Mybutt" should be a dead giveaway that the story is not real, as is the category the article was posted under: " Fictional Entertainment". And of course the Ad Council ad with the text "I tried pot once. Now I'm gay" and "Say no to drugs" is fake too (and a bit homophobic as well...).

Huzlers styles itself as a "fauxtire" website and carries a disclaimer at the bottom of each page:

Huzlers.com is the most infamous fauxtire & satire entertainment website in the world. If it's trending on social media you'll find it here!

According to Splinter News the site is run by Pablo Reyes and David Martinez and according to Buzzfeed Reyes is involved with several other fake news websites. They tend to shy away from political stories, opting instead to write for a more "urban" audience, with stories about rappers, criminals and celebrities.

We wrote about huzlers.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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