FDA and CDC find Vitamin E dillutant in THC Products
This last week, I received more calls from friends and family asking about the safety of vapor than any other week since we started Flavorah over half a decade ago.
The reason I was getting called is because of all the scary news stories about over 200 people poisoned by “Dangerous Vape Pens” in the USA this week.
This is a tragedy for the victims and the industry, and it can be traced to a pocket of vendors in the THC/cannabis market who have been using a product branded as “Honeycutt” to thin their recreational drug products.
“What seems clear is that many of the victims are young and probably reluctant to report using illegal cannabis products. “Not everyone [in Illinois] reported using THC oil, but we can’t say if that was because they were scared to acknowledge it or because they never used it,” Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike told MedPage Today.
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This product, “Honeycutt” was sold from a fly by night Chinese vendor that shut down their website when it looked like they were going to get in trouble. Legitimate vapor manufacturers know that you don’t vape oils…and don’t rely on the health and safety claims of a Chinese chemical supplier.
Also clear is that commercial nicotine vaping products are not responsible for the outbreak of lung injuries. But the FDA and CDC continue to warn against vaping any product, and refuse to make a direct statement implicating what appears the most likely cause. As we reported last week, federal officials persist in using language that confuses the public, rather than using the terms users of all vaping products understand.
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THC wax pens, and hash oils are not the same as PG-VG type vape which is the what most adults trying to achieve smoking cessation use.
Further, the vast majority of vapor products in the USA have not changed since August 8, 2016 when the FDA deemed that anything containing nicotine or for use with nicotine would be regulated more than traditional tobacco cigarettes. There have not been widespread problems with these deemed tobacco products in the United States, and millions of people around the world are using newly developed products that are similar and often made with superior flavors and purity.
This is Vitamin E as a cutting agent is a situation isolated in THC type drug use, and sadly the people selling these recreational marijuana products did not know what they were putting in their lungs.
The Thousands of legitimate companies doing their best to help their customers quit tobacco, and break their addictions to nicotine have wrongly been lumped in with the broad definition of “Vape” which now seems to include anything you can put in a stick and smoke.
Boston University public health professor Dr. Michael Siegel says that “in their zeal to demonize e-cigarettes, the CDC and other health agencies have put the lives of our nation’s youth at risk. They should have issued a warning 11 days ago. During the past 11 days, how many youth continued to vape THC oils because of the failure of health agencies to accurately convey the known information about the potential causes of the outbreak?”
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The companies that have made an effort to produce a clean product, check the inhalation safety of their ingredients, and prevent adulteration have also suffered because of unscrupulous vendors.
CDC is holding a press briefing this afternoon. If the agency doesn’t clearly describe the likely cause of the lung injuries, it will become clear—even to observers outside the vaping world—that federal public health officials are using this sad series of events to advance their decade-old effort to kill vaping.
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