Vaping’s Plausible Deniability Is Going Up in Smoke

Ongoing FDA investigations and a spate of hospitalizations show that “safer than cigarettes” does not mean safe.

To market a product as less harmful than cigarettes is to damn it with faint praise.

America has known about the catastrophic harm smoking does to the human body for decades, so when e-cigarettes became widely available in the early 2010s, they were greeted with some optimism. The devices deliver nicotine or cannabinoids via vapor instead of smoke, which avoids some of the nasty by-products of combustion. There’s no way they could be as bad as cigarettes, right?

That rationale has helped nicotine-vaping rates explode since 2015, especially among teens. The same technology has become popular among cannabis users both legal and non-. But the question of vaping’s relative danger has recently taken on a much more desperate tone. While vaping is still so new that broad, long-term data on inhaling the often mysterious chemicals found in both nicotine and cannabis “vape juice” won’t be available for years, Americans are beginning to see the effects that heavy or extended use of the vaping market’s vast array of products might have.

The early evidence is alarming. A report today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 450 cases in 33 states of a mysterious “vaping illness” that affects the lungs of otherwise healthy people, most of them under the age of 30. So far, three people have died, and the CDC is investigating a fourth.

As stories pile up of sicknesses, side effects, and the potential for long-term consequences, it’s clear that “safe” and “safer than smoking cigarettes” are vastly different things.

When the regulation of most tobacco products came under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s control in 2009, the agency was involved in a lawsuit with an e-cigarette manufacturer over efforts to classify vapes as drug-delivery devices, which would have put placed them under a much higher level of regulatory scrutiny than other tobacco products. That bid failed in 2010, and the consumer tobacco market quickly filled with clever marketing tactics for equally clever–and in many cases addictive–vaping products. E-cigarettes devices themselves didn’t officially come under FDA tobacco oversight until 2016.

Now government agencies such as the FDA and the CDC have to play catch-up. The most immediate concern is the illness that has landed hundreds of people in the hospital this summer. Its laundry list of potential symptoms includes fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and extreme shortness of breath. Vape juice can contain dozens of different chemicals, so reverse-engineering what hundreds of sick people across the country have in common is tricky. Some of the problematic substances might be long gone by now, or they could be part of black-market cannabis products that patients are reticent to turn over to federal authorities.

The FDA has emphasized that it is too early to know for sure what’s causing the worst health problems, but testing so far points to cannabis products as the likeliest source of the most dire symptoms. Most patients have reported using vape products with tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. No common chemical has been found yet across all the samples the FDA has tested, but public health authorities in New York have suggested vitamin E acetate is a possible culprit. Vitamin E acetate is sometimes found in the oil base for vape juice and can be harmful when inhaled in high concentrations.

In much of the country, cannabis’s cultural acceptance far outpaces its legal availability, which means that its users rely on products with unknown origins and ingredients, manufactured with no regulatory oversight. Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, so even states that have legalized it are left on their own when regulating its manufacture and sale. One of the deaths has been linked to a cannabis vape purchased from an Oregon dispensary.

Advocates for the nicotine-vaping industry have been quick to point to black-market cannabis products as the real source of health problems, which they claim are being used misleadingly by anti-tobacco advocates to fuel their own crusades. But that argument belies the fundamental lack of information available when evaluating nicotine vaping’s impacts on health and its potential interactions with other drugs. Many of the people who are known to have fallen sick this summer use nicotine vapes in addition to cannabis, and it’s possible that lung irritation caused by frequent use of nicotine e-cigarettes could hasten or worsen the impacts of chemicals found in black-market cannabis products.

That argument also ignores the small but growing body of evidence that nicotine vaping could harm long-term users by itself, and especially those who start young. The FDA is investigating more than 120 reports of seizures and other neurological symptoms linked to vapes between 2010 and 2019. At least some of those cases have been linked to devices from Juul, the brand that commands more than 70 percent of the nicotine-vaping market in the United States and that has found particularly wide favor among teens and young adults. (In response to mounting health concerns, Juul CEO Kevin Burns has publicly urged people who aren’t already cigarette smokers to avoid vaping, including with products made by his company.) For complete story Vaping Up IN SMOKE!

Dear Friend,

As I am sure you have heard by now, the latest innovation of Big Marijuana has turned fatal.

Unfortunately, there are now hundreds of cases of severe respiratory illnesses with six deaths linked to the vaping of high potency marijuana.

In response, the Trump Administration is poised to ban non-tobacco flavored vaping products from the market, but as of yet there has been no mention of any action to be taken against the actual culprit responsible for these deaths: marijuana vapes.

It is vital that we take every action to urge elected officials at every level to immediately pull all marijuana vaping products off the shelves.

And despite what you may hear from the industry\’s spin doctors, the DOJ and FDA can put an end to pot vaping without having to legalize and \”regulate\” the drug.

Click here now to call your Member of Congress and urge them to take action against Big Marijuana and stop turning a blind eye to the reality of the harms it is perpetrating on our country.

In order to prevent more loss of life at the hands of the addiction-for-profit industry, we must call on our federal representatives to ENFORCE FEDERAL LAW AND PUT AN END TO THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF MARIJUANA VAPING PRODUCTS.

If you have social media, please be sure to use the hashtag #PotVapingCrisis  when sharing information related to this development.

Here is a sample tweet for you to use:

We can’t forget: marijuana vaping is the root cause of the recent slew of illness and deaths from vaping. Dear @realDonaldTrump, @HHSGov, @TheJusticeDept, @FDACommissioner, it’s time to hold Big Marijuana accountable for the #PotVapingCrisis

Nicotine vaping is indeed a scourge, but we cannot allow the fact that marijuana vaping is the root cause of this new rash of illnesses and deaths escape unnoticed. Please, do everything in your power to hold Big Pot accountable.

Together, we can help save lives,

Dr. Kevin Sabet
President and Founder,
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)

About SAM

Co-founded in 2013 by former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy and Dr. Kevin A. Sabet, a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) is the nation\’s premier non-profit, non-partisan marijuana policy organization. Advised by a blue ribbon scientific advisory board, SAM envisions a society where marijuana policies are aligned with the scientific understanding of marijuana\’s harms, and the commercialization and normalization of marijuana are no more. Its mission is to educate citizens on the science of marijuana and to promote health-first, smart policies and attitudes that decrease marijuana use and its consequences.

SAM has advised almost every state government in the U.S., Pope Francis, Queen Silvia of Sweden, and several other governments, dignitaries, and international organizations. It has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations, and SAM team members have testified before Congress numerous times, as well as have appeared in almost every media outlet in the country.

\’I can\’t wait to get out of valley\’: Inside the sleepy Queensland town that has seen a 350 per cent rise in crime — and locals say the ice epidemic is to blame

• Finch Hatton — the sleepy town in the Mackay Region — has seen crime rate rise
• Residents are on edge after a number of businesses were targeted by thieves 
• Business owner Chris Pollard claims rampant drug use is to blame for the spike

By KELSEY WILKIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA  4 September 2019

A once quiet town in rural Queensland has become a haven for criminals – and local residents claim a devastating ice epidemic is to blame.

Finch Hatton General Store was targeted by thieves last month, they managed to take off with $15,000 worth of cigarettes

Her store was ransacked one night in August. The thugs managed to take off with $15,000 worth of cigarettes.

\’They are all on edge. They want to feel safe but they can\’t.

\’The fear is we might get targeted again.\’

Ms Jones said she had never seen crime rates this bad in the six years she\’s lived there.

The break-in was similar to what happened to the service station, which was hit by thieves just a few weeks earlier, Ms Jones said.

Valley Rural Services owner Chris Pollard told the Courier Mail ice was to blame for the spike in crime.

\’I can\’t wait to get out of the Valley, and I never thought I would say that.

Business owners have been forced to install extra security after a string of break-ins

\’We never used to lock our doors or cars (but) people don\’t feel safe here.\’

There has been an increase in the number of drug-related arrests in the Finch Hatton division since 2003, Queensland Crime Statistics show.

For complete story go to  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7424545/Inside-Queensland-town-seen-350-cent-rise-crime.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

California: SB-223 Is A Marijuana Media Stunt
Kids Allowed to Take “Medi Pot” at K-12 Schools

Governor Gavin Newsom signs SB-223, California students will be allowed to take marijuana at K-12 schools, but only under certain conditions and only in districts that decide not to opt-out.

No cannabis of any sort is allowed within 1,000 feet of a school, so parents of pupils who consume pot during the school day, must take children 1,000 feet away from campus to administer the, and then return them to school.

These are the conditions under which the marijuana is administered under the new law:

• The student is a “qualified” patient with a valid written medical recommendation for medicinal cannabis
• The student’s parent or guardian provide a copy of the recommendation to the school to keep on file.
• The medicinal cannabis is not stored on campus, and can’t be smoked or vaped.  So, the pot would be an edible, oil, capsules, tinctures, liquids.
• The parent or guardian sign in when coming on campus to administer it to a student. They must not disrupt the educational environment or expose other students to medi- pot.

Any FDA approved drug can already be administered to a student on campus. If the drug being administered is not FDA approved it is dangerous and possibly child abuse to administer a substance that is not properly identified as to its content, not tested, and not pure. Anti-seizure drugs that have been double-blind tested and approved as effective such as Epidiolex are typically dosed in the morning and evening. There is no reason for a mid-day treatment but if there is even a school nurse could administer it.

This bill is a stunt because it is being proposed just to get a news headline:
“Pot Can Now Be Given By Parents to Their Children At School”

The goal is to continue to mislead the public and the rues that is “medical” marijuana.

“The entire ‘medical’ marijuana recommendation protocol has been a sham from the beginning. Even the pot industry admits that the designation of marijuana as a medicine was just to help get it approved for just getting high. I know personally as I received 3 ‘recommendations’ myself without ever seeing a doctor.”
-Scott Chipman 

“In light of the recent Surgeon General warning against marijuana use by young people we urge Governor Newsom to follow former Governor Jerry Brown’s lead and not to sign this bill. If he signs we urge school boards to opt-out, and we urge parents to contact their local school boards and expose this sham and to educate their children on the dangers of marijuana use.”
-Carla Lowe

\’Operation Cookout\’: Enough fentanyl to kill 14 million seized in massive drug bust                                                                                                                                                     by Zachary Halaschak August 30, 2019

35 people were arrested, and enormous amounts of narcotics were seized as part of the largest drug takedown in Virginia in over 15 years.

Law enforcement officers seized over 30 kilograms of fentanyl, 30 kilograms of heroin, and five kilograms of cocaine after busting a drug ring that spanned three states. In addition to the drugs, $700,000 was recovered as well as 24 firearms, according to CBS.

“This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It\’s happening right here in Norfolk,” U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger said.

In the course of the investigation, dubbed “Operation Cookout,” authorities found that one member of the ring ordered fentanyl from Shanghai. Fentanyl is a powerful artificial opioid that is used as a filler in other drugs and can be fatal in extremely small doses. Most of the chemical comes from labs in China.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/operation-cookout-enough-fentanyl-to-kill-14-million-seized-in-massive-drug-bust

72pc of west Dublin teens getting HSE help for drug addiction take cannabis

Sean McCarthaigh — 28 August 2019

Twice as many teens said they used cannabis (72pc) as cocaine (36pc) in the HSE report

Cannabis remains the main problem drug among teenagers from west Dublin receiving treatment for addiction.

A report by the HSE Adolescent Addiction Service in Bally- fermot found cannabis was the primary substance of use by patients using the service last year, with 72pc reporting taking it.

The report said there was no record of patients using opiates, solvents or head shop-type products last year.

It also noted there was a decrease in the number of patients who reported taking alcohol, benzodiazepines and amphetamines.

The report documented that some teenagers also had issues with indebtedness and absconding.

Ninety-three per cent of those availing of the service last year were male while 11pc were non-Irish nationals, the HSE said.

It said the number of young people who had previous contact with child and adolescent mental health services was up eight percentage points on 2017 to 48pc but was lower than at any other stage over the previous 22 years.

The existence of substance abuse within the patient\’s family was recorded in 52pc of cases last year.

More than half of all patients also came from families where their parents had separated.

Nine teenagers were out of education or training at the time of being referred to the service.

The HSE said it submitted four child protection notifications in relation to patients last year.

÷ CANNABIS: Taken by 72pc of users

÷COCAINE: Taken by 36pc of users

÷AMPHETAMINES: Taken by 30pc of users

÷BENZODIAZAPINES: Taken by 12pc of users

÷KETAMINE: Taken by 7pc of users

For complete article go to https://www.herald.ie/news/72pc-of-west-dublin-teens-getting-hse-help-for-drug-addiction-take-cannabis-38443238.html

SAM Leader Highlights Flaws in Studies on Marijuana Access and Opioid Deaths

August 23, 2019 by Staff Reports

The marijuana industry has made a list of claims finding legalization to be an unmitigated success (and why not, their profits depend on it!). One such claim rests on the idea that greater access to marijuana leads to a reduction in opioid problems. This was first presented in a 2014 study claiming a 25% reduction in opioid deaths in states with medical marijuana–and it has since been emblazoned across billboards nationwide.

More recently, a study published in Economic Inquiry purports to show marijuana legalization is responsible for a 21% reduction in opiate mortality. These studies represent outliers, however, and suffer from major methodological weaknesses.

First, the 2014 study has been updated in 2019 by Stanford researchers. They found when the study was extended to include states legalizing marijuana between 2010 and 2017, marijuana legalization was associated with a 25% increase in opioid fatalities.

The Economic Inquiry study ignores data from half of the country and fails to control for numerous other possible explainers/factors.

What\’s more, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, medical marijuana users make up around 2.5% of the population of any given state. Knowing this, it is logically unfeasible that such a small population is responsible for a whopping 25% reduction in opiate mortality.

Furthermore, another 2019 study, this time in Substance Use and Addiction, a JAMA-related publication, concluded “medical marijuana law enactment was not associated with a reduction in individual-level non-medical opioid abuse, contradicting the hypothesis that people would substitute marijuana for prescription opioids.”

In the 2019 Stanford study, the lead author concluded, “Is passing medical cannabis legalization a good strategy to prevent opioid overdose death, and I think our study gives pretty good evidence, that it\’s not.”

Such studies present legitimate threats to viable and well-established methods of facilitating recovery among victims of opioid abuse. The data, when misinterpreted, has the potential to downplay the importance of access to medically assisted treatment, as well as the role of naloxone in overdose prevention.

Given that research has shown marijuana users are in fact more than twice as likely to abuse prescription opioids, more likely to require higher doses of opiate medications for pain, and more likely to use marijuana in conjunction with opioids, we must stop perpetuating the false notion that marijuana is an answer to opioid abuse.

In the midst of a true addiction epidemic, the risks are too great.

For complete article go to  https://www.addictionpro.com/article/sam-leader-highlights-flaws-studies-marijuana-access-and-opioid-deaths

The reality of life in a \”Dopesick\” country: \”It is just a state of misery\”

The data which was featured in the Washington Post showed that 76 billion pills were sent to such areas of the country. When you look at the worst-hit communities per capita, these are places where the pharmaceutical sales reps went in and told these lies. They were able to find doctors to work with. Who do people trust? They trust their doctors. The companies purposely lied to the doctors, who then prescribed the pills in those communities at the same time the jobs were going away.

It was a perfect storm of not only people getting addicted very quickly – because there has never been a drug, an opioid, this strong before – but also the users start diverting the drugs because they were in such oversupply. The pills were being sold on the black market as a way for desperate people to pay their bills. This was much the same way that their ancestors had done with moonshine.

In these rural communities hit by the opioid epidemic it is just a state of misery. I was visiting my little nephews in rural Ohio – which has the second[-highest] overdose death rate in the country – and we were getting chili dogs at this little hot dog stand in a former factory town. We were going to the park and the 11-year-old says, \”No Aunt Beth, we don\’t want to step on heroin needles.\” And literally this is a town where nobody used to lock their doors. Rural America has changed so much.

There are so many moral hazards in this story of America\’s opioid epidemic. First, people are addicted to pills by companies making money from their sickness. In turn there are few if any jobs in these communities so the people there are self-medicating. Then there is mass incarceration and for-profit prisons which make money from locking people up who do not have access to drug treatment. It is dystopian.

What is the intersection between emotional pain and physical pain for the people you interviewed and got to know for your reporting in \”Dopesick\”?

How do the executives and other senior personnel in these pharmaceutical companies which are selling opioids to these communities rationalize their behavior?

Is there any moment of stepping back where the corporations and their management say to themselves, \”Maybe this isn\’t the best thing for these communities?\” Or is it always profits over people?

For complete article go to ‘It is always decisions — not conditions that make saint or swine.’ (Frankl)