No matter which side of the electronic cigarette debate you are on, I don’t think we expected to see vaping and deaths together in the same sentence. However, that is just what happened in the headlines in recent weeks.
As the media has rushed to tout the deadliness of vaping with the same enthusiasm it previously broadcast the “health benefits” of the same products, there is more to consider than the headlines.
Vaping Business
The business model for vaping started an entrepreneurial venture. Small business people created products and sold them through assorted venues. Companies like Juul began to form and more recently, large tobacco companies have been joining in the market. With players like these, there is obviously money to made.
Even though formal companies are stepping into the market, there is still an underground industry for the manufacture of vaping products. Marijuana and its byproducts continue to be federally controlled in the United States, distillation of cannabis products is a cottage industry that shows no signs of slowing. THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive part of marijuana that produces the “high”, is extracted, put into vaping products and marketed.
A Question of Quality
A significant percentage of the recent deaths involved vaping products containing THC, so the media and pundits are starting to point to THC as the real culprit. This however, may be an unfair conclusion. Here’s why:
- THC, as a controlled substance, has no quality control in its manufacture. Product on the market came from someone’s personal lab. This person may know what they are doing or they may have just read an article on how to make THC on the Internet. The consumer gets to guess whether the substance is safe.
- No conclusive evidence has yet been produced to establish the danger of vaping THC. Since marijuana is still illegal, only limited study has occurred. Amateur chemists thought of extracting THC and putting it in vape pens.
- Evidence of the dangers of vaping are just starting to be found. Vaping is still relatively new and the marketing preceded the testing of the product. Testing has been on the consumers and evidence is now starting to show up in emergency rooms.
Strange to be Here
I find it funny to be in the position of defending the cannabis industry on this one but we need to wait for credible evidence of THC dangers. The recent reports of deaths and injuries connected with vaping are just that: reports. Raw data do not constitute a reasoned conclusion. Actual causes may be the THC or some of the many chemicals found in vaping.
Don’t let all of the media hype wind you up. What is needed is scientific study – and a lot of it. Just what happens to a body using an e-cigarette? What is a standard dose of THC? How do different concentrations of vaping chemicals (including THC, formaldehyde, nicotine and heavy metals) react with body systems? Vaping to quit smoking may be a great use but it does not answer the question whether vaping is safe.
With what we do know right now, vaping is still a risky activity in which to participate. There is enough evidence from which to draw this conclusion. Just how risky still has to be established.
Be educated, be smart, and be healthy.
“We equate wisdom with intelligence, which is about the same as equating a can opener with a can. If you don’t apply the first to the second, neither of them matter.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough
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