Tag: vape pen cartridges

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, many people forget about a previous health crisis that was sweeping across the globe and was particularly bad in North America – the vaping crisis.

For many weeks reports were popping up of people experiencing illnesses after consuming vape pen cartridges, and in some cases, the suffering individuals died, which is extremely unfortunate. Cannabis opponents pounced on the crisis and pointed to it as ‘proof’ that cannabis reform was failing.

Cannabis advocates were quick to point out that a vast majority of the vape pen cartridges involved were unregulated, and that the best way to address the crisis was via more cannabis regulation, and not less, which is essentially what cannabis opponents were calling for.

A recent press release from NORML provides further proof that cannabis advocates are right. See the press release from NORML below:

Incidences of the vaping-related lung illness EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury) are primarily concentrated to jurisdictions where adult-use cannabis consumption is prohibited, according to data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.

Commenting on the findings, NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said, “These findings come as little surprise. In jurisdictions where cannabis is legally regulated, consumers gravitate toward the above-ground retail marketplace where they can access lab-tested products manufactured by licensed businesses.” He added, “Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to the illicit production of dangerous ‘bathtub gin,’ marijuana prohibition provides bad actors, not licensed businesses, the opportunity to fulfill consumers’ demand – sometimes with tragic results.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 3,000 people have sought hospitalization because of the illness, which peaked last September, and nearly 70 people died as a result of it. In November, the CDC publicly identified vitamin E acetate – a diluting agent sometimes present in counterfeit, unregulated vape pen products – as a primarily “culprit” in the outbreak.

Writing on Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers affiliated with Indiana University reported that last year’s sudden outbreak of EVALI cases was not driven by either state-level differences or prevalence in e-cigarette use. Rather, they reported that cases “were concentrated in states where consumers do not have legal access to recreational marijuana dispensaries. … One possible inference from our results is that the presence of legal markets for marijuana has helped mitigate or may be protective against EVALI.”

A previous analysis of EVALI prevalence in legal cannabis markets versus illegal markets by Leafly.com drew a similar conclusion.

In a statement to the online news site MedPageToday.com, the study’s lead author said that the team’s findings are “consistent with the hypothesis that people have demand for marijuana products, and in states where they don’t have access to them in this regulatory fashion, they end up purchasing them elsewhere.”

Full text of the study, “Association of state marijuana legalization policies for medical and recreational use with vaping-associated lung disease,” appears in JAMA Network Open. An accompanying editorial, “Marijuana legislation and electronic cigarette- or vaping-associated lung injury,” also appears online here.

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NORML’s mission is to move public opinion sufficiently to legalize the responsible use of marijuana by adults, and to serve as an advocate for consumers to assure they have access to high-quality marijuana that is safe, convenient, and affordable.

Find out more at www.norml.org and read our factsheets on the most common misconceptions and myths regarding reform efforts around the country at www.norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets

As Alberta joins several other Canadian provinces in allowing the sale of cannavapes (several provinces have banned them), the question now hanging in the air is when will such innovation come to Europe?

That is an intriguing question.

Vaping tobacco-based products is already popular in Europe, although far more regulated. With new producers coming online and a market-ready for new products, there is clearly a market opening. However, entrants have to understand the politics and the regulatory environment, as well as the existing competition.

Europe and vapes, even of the CBD variety, is not for the faint of heart.

The Big Three Issues In Europe

The mostly widely used vape in Europe is of the medical variety. Certainly in Germany, the name Storz and Bickel is eponymous with the idea. However, S&B has also taken the long path to certification of its devices as “medical” – itself a time-consuming endeavor. While there are clearly competitors now lining up from Israel to Canada and even the United States, the medical market is just one avenue.

CBD vaping is also in the room now and that is spawning competitors in every direction. Regardless, even though medical regulations do not have to be followed, consumer protection rules are also here in spaces.

Beyond the devices themselves, however, is another big discussion – namely, Novel Food. All cannabis tinctures and extracts on which vaping liquids are based will have to follow strict manufacturing requirements beyond the source of the plant and its THC content, no matter when that discussion is had on the recreational front.

That said, the horizon is clearly opening. If cannabis is going to be legal in Europe, as is increasingly proving to be the case, and within the next five years, there are going to be alternatives to smoking it.

How Do Entrepreneurs Tackle The Market?

There is no one path to success. However, it is also clearly the case that niche products are starting to make their successful entre into the continent, even if it is one custom-built sales channel at a time.

The best way to ensure market entry is to understand the market, and for that, there is no better cannabis business conference than the International Cannabis Business Conference to make those valuable connections. If not understand the shifting winds of regulatory requirements and trade opportunities as they open if not are created on the ground.

Be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference conferences in Barcelona, Berlin, and Bern this year!

In recent weeks a number of stories have come out regarding illnesses attributed to vape pen use. Some cases involved consumers that have reported using cannabis vape pen cartridges and others involved consumers that reported having only used nicotine-based vaping products.

Some of the cases involved THC cartridges and others did not. Some cases involved the dilutant additive vitamin E acetate and others did not. All of the cases are unfortunate. Regardless of what is to blame for each case, the popularity of cannabis vape cartridges has declined according to a report by USA Today:

Amid the health scare, the amount of the legal pot industry’s revenue that comes from vape products has dropped by 15% nationwide, with some states seeing decreases of more than 60%.

“It’s having an impact on how consumers are behaving,” said David Alport, owner of Bridge City Collective in Portland, which in two weeks this month saw a 31% drop in sales of vape cartridges that hold the oil that vaporizes when heated. “People are concerned, and we’re concerned.”

Vape pen cartridges have grown exponentially in popularity in recent years. They are convenient, discrete, and create far less odor compared to smoking cannabis. It will be interesting to see if sales continue to decrease. That will ultimately depend on what additional information comes out about the health cases.

Unregulated cannabis vape pen cartridges should be 100% avoided by consumers. Without testing, there’s no way to know what is contained in the cartridges. As for regulated cannabis vape pen cartridges, if they are purchased from regulated outlets that require testing, products should be safe. However, consumers proceed at their own risk.

Stringent regulations are likely on the way for cannabis vape pen cartridges. In Massachusetts, a 4-month ban was recently announced, which is an unfortunate public policy approach that will likely result in many consumers turning to the unregulated market, which is where the health risk is the greatest.