Over Memorial Day weekend, Roseanne Barr must have taken a little too much Ambien. According to The Atlantic, she then wrote racist tweets about an African American public figure. Later, also on Twitter, after deleting the racist tweets, Roseanne Barr wrote: "Not giving excuses for what I did (tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on ambien—cracked eggs on the wall at 2am etc.”

Ambien has been known to cause some bizarre sleep-walking behaviors and binge eating in some people, but this may be the first time the drug has been associated with the public expression of racist sentiments by a public figure.

Twitter users are currently making fun of Roseanne's statements under the hashtag NewAmbienWarningLabels. As of this writing, there are nearly 2000 tweets with the NewAmbienWarningLabels hashtag that include mock warnings such as "Call your doctor immediately if your racism lasts longer than 4 hours."

Roseanne's tweets led to the cancellation of her show

Although Roseanne Barr's revival show had high ratings, The Atlantic reports that the ABC network canceled the show hours after Roseanne tweeted her racist remarks.

According to The Atlantic, Rosanne used Twitter to state that an African American former advisor to Donald Trump was the likely offspring of "the muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes."

In a public statement regarding the cancellation of Roseanne Barr's show, ABC said: "Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”

Ironically, according to The Atlantic, President Trump had recently called Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on her show's success.

On top of that, Twitter users are taking advantage of Roseanne's Ambien excuse for racism to jest that President Trump himself, due to his own rambunctious tweets, may be having some Ambien side effects.

Can Ambien cause racism?

USA Today reports that the maker of Ambien, Sanofi, has said that racism is not a known side effect of the sleeping medication or any other Sanofi product.

In fact, Sanofi made this statement of defense to the public on Twitter.

Medical opinion, however, suggests that people should be careful with social media like Twitter when taking sleeping medication. USA Today reports that Dr. Rachel Salas, an associate professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said people like Roseanne Barr could, in fact, tweet on Ambien without remembering, and advises that sleep medication users avoid sleeping next to their cell phones and computers just in case they might start tweeting in an Ambien daze.

It is unclear, however, whether this advice would have helped Roseanne Barr, who appears able to sleepwalk while on Ambien and throw eggs around at walls. It is likely if the comedian could find eggs in a refrigerator while on Ambien, she would also be able to locate her cell phone in order to tweet. Ultimately, the FDA may have to weigh in on the question of whether a sleeping medication can cause a person to become spontaneously racist on social media. In the meantime, Twitter users will continue to invent comical warning labels for the popular drug.
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