Vaping Problems

Forums:

Vitamin E acetate is now a focus of the investigation into vaping-related respiratory illnesses that have sickened 34 people in New York, state health officials say.

As of Thursday afternoon, there have been 361 confirmed or suspected cases reported by state health departments nationwide. Two people have died, one in Illinois and the other in Oregon.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/vitamin-e-now-focus-investigation-...

Hesitant to use my vape pen. a friend’s college student was in the hospital with lung disease this past winter, before all this evidence was coming out. He sustained permanent lung damage and one has wonder now if  it was a vape injury. Scary shit. 

I rarely use the vape pen, but it does come in handy at concerts and on boats. Checked with the dispensary (Caliva) where I've purchased the cartridges and asked they contain any Vitamin E oil. Couldn't get straight answer and was told that "All the products on our shelve are tested for pesticides and contaminants" and they contain "cannabis and terpenes". Anyone know if Vitamin E is considered a terpenoid? 

 

>Terpenes (/ˈtɜːrpiːn/) are a large and diverse class of organic compounds, produced by a variety of plants, particularly conifers, and by some insects.[1][2] They often have a strong odor and may protect the plants that produce them by deterring herbivores and by attracting predators and parasites of herbivores.[3][4]Although sometimes used interchangeably with "terpenes", terpenoids (or isoprenoids) are modified terpenes as they contain additional functional groups, usually oxygen-containing.[5] Terpenes are hydrocarbons.

Terpenes are the major components of rosin and of turpentine produced from resin. The name "terpene" is derived from the word "terpentine", an obsolete form of the word "turpentine". Terpenes are also major biosynthetic building blocks. Steroids, for example, are derivatives of the triterpene squalene.

Terpenes and terpenoids are the primary constituents of the essential oils of many types of plants and flowers. Essential oils are used widely as fragrances in perfumery and traditional medicine, such as aromatherapy. Synthetic variations and derivatives of natural terpenes and terpenoids also greatly expand the variety of aromas used in perfumery and flavors used in food additives. Vitamin A is a terpenoid.

 

 

Flower Power

^ PAX 

Are they investigating the e cigarette cartidges as well?  What is tbe breakdown between e cigs and cannabis vaping in the reported cases?  Seems to me they are piling onto the recent surgeon general warning about weed.......

Been vaping for most of the past 2 years and have suffered no ill effects.......

Turpentine Station

 

Sounds delicious. 

Ok we know it’s vitamin E now but what brands are the tainted cartridges? 

This would not surprise me if this was intentional to change public opinions on legalization. They have to know what brands could be responsible if they’ve found the harmful ingredient they have the cartridges 

Intentional?  Really?

>>>Are they investigating the e cigarette cartidges as well? 

My understanding is it's all THC-based products.

>> They have to know what brands could be responsible if they’ve found the harmful ingredient they have the cartridges 

My understanding is also that it appears to be from homemade cartridges.  Heard an NPR piece on it and trust their reporting.

 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/second-possible-vaping-related-dea...

 

>The Oregon Health Authority reports the individual had used a vaping device purchased from a cannabis dispensary before becoming ill. The death occurred in July.

Apparently inhaling smoke is healthier than inhaling oil. Who knew?

Let's hope the vaping oil industry will come clean with information as to what is in their particular products.

Have a friend trying to get an ingredients list and is finding it difficult to get a response from the company. 

My problem with vaping is it doesn't seem to be as effective in getting me high as smoking buds.

Yeah, Vitamin E oil looks like cannabis oil, but doesn’t do the trick - and apparently can be deadly 

 

 

if anyone wants carts without any cuts in them, golddrop makes distillate carts thinned with cannabis derived terpenes from blue river.

many BHO companies that make live resin now make live resin carts, where the runny terpene fraction of a separated BHO sauce is put into a vape pen either straight up or cut ~50/50 with distillate.

made from only "cannabis and terpenes" usually means you have low grade distillate made from garbage weed, thinned out with products like these -https://trueterpenes.com/shop/pure-terpene-isolates/isolates/

food grade terpenes. these are terpenes derived from random, noncannabis plant sources.

id recommend avoiding distillate and carts entirely - aside from issues of safety and purity, its bottom of the barrel garbage. when a farmer fucks their crop up beyond repair, in the 2019 cannabis market its just automatically assumed that at any point a sick or contaminated plant can just be chopped down and sold to distillate companies as "biomass". they are overpriced as all get out and are the halmark of the modern day custie. just buy a vaporizer or dugout for convinence. 

 

Thanks, Daylight. Seems that the dispensaries not disclosing ingredients and/or selling crap cartridges are setting themselves up to be sued if lung injury or death were to occur from these ‘tested’ products. Or maybe they have some fine print that protects them? 

So...dissing "flower smokers" is out of fashion now?

any carts made from distillate with a THC% below 85% is most likely cut with something you do not want. carts made from a live resin terpene fraction will naturally clock in around 50%.

85-95% in a cart isnt as high as it sounds...the hits you are able to take are much, much smaller, so the high comes on much slower. personally i cant get high on the damn things, even with straight distillate at 95%+. kinda like the difference between eating a drug and snorting/smoking/injecting...eating the drug comes on much slower so the effect is weaker and less euphoric...quicker ROA's like smoking or injecting, they come on fast, higher blood plasma levels are reached, so the high is stronger and more euphoric. personally i feel like i get higher from a few good rips of high potency flower from a pipe than i do a few rips of 95% distillate from a small cart. THC % is not the most significant factor here - its the onset of action...thats why you get a milder high from carts. you cant get the THC into your body as fast as with large hits of smoked cannabis regardless of the THC %.

>>>>eating the drug comes on much slower so the effect is weaker and less euphoric

Weaker?   Guess you need to eat more.   Edibles are my go to these days.   I even sometimes splurge for the store bought kind that come in measured doses for when you have to do stuff and want to be assured that you won't get too high.  But for most other situations where that's not a concern, homemade baked goods (or just ganja butter on toast) is the staple medium and gets you high, high.

Vape pens are good for stealth and convenience and can't imagine that even with some artificial filler that its any worse in the grand scheme of things than inhaling smoke.   My biggest problem is the battery going out or the thing getting clogged.  One time, I was camping at the beach and my pen ran out of power and had no way to charge it.  I ended up sucking some of the oil out the cartridge and got freeking ripped.

with edibles the THC is metabolized into a stronger, more psychedelic cannabinoid. eating vs smoking thc is not a good example of this principle. good examples are orally taken opiates vs injected heroin, oral amphetamines vs smoked or injected methaphetamine, or ayahuasca vs smoked DMT. the principle applies to smoked flower vs vape carts because in both cases they are going thru the same metabolic processes...when you compare smoked thc to oral thc the metabolism is very different. this principle is why people inject heroin or snort cocaine instead of eating it...the rapid onset of action causes a much stronger and more euphoric high. if oral use was comparable to faster ROA's, nobody would risk injecting heroin or deal with the unpleasant sensation of snorting meth/coke...everyone would just eat those drugs if that were the case.

Live rosin carts only over here dude. No cuts or additives, no bullshit, no rolling the dice. The rules are the same as ever - know your grower. ;)

Folks should know the entire vape oil segment of the market (with the exception of the 2% or so of the legit craft-producers within that population) basically chases the bottom dollar of the market. Vape cartridges (Hydrocarbon and distillate both) are made with the least desirable, least merchantable, heaviest contaminated, cheapest obtained drug material that could be found. Like, literally the sweepings off the trim room floor in a lot of cases. On the wholesale market you have heard it referred to as biomass. Meaning, if you aren’t buying high-end carts from the most reputable dispensaries, you most likely are getting WAY less than you’re paying for in medicine, and way more of what you bargained for in fillers, contaminants, and impurities.

The other half of the equation are 100% bootleg carts packed in actual legit packaging, which can be purchased outright thru alibaba etc. Even a well educated and street savvy buyer could be fooled by these, and they are everywhere.

If you don’t know an honest farmer, the best way to buy this stuff is to reach out to the producers of the product you want, directly thru social media, and find out where the freshest product to you is located. 

Batteries exploding is another conversation, but know there are real dangers with these things. By my estimation, smoking joints is a lot less questionable at this point in time.

I overlooked the last part of daylight’s first post. But yeah...

i just do bong hits.

>>>are made with the least desirable, least merchantable, heaviest contaminated, cheapest

Figured that was the case with edibles too.   Odd they don't advertise strain but assume there would be a big payoff for someone who takes that next step.  

>>>(with the exception of the 2% or so of the legit craft-producers within that population) 

Where does one find these fine folks?

 

In a legalized setting, the Emerald Cup is the first place that comes to mind where joe public could meet and interact with some sustainable/conscious farmers, ask questions, and maybe sample some product.

In the underground, same place as ever - dead shows.

I just watched a segment on this on msnbc.  It was all about e-cigs and the flavored cartridges (i.e., JUUL).  Think this all part of a campaign to keep MJ illegal.  If not, get it off schedule 1 and do some damn testing and research once and for all.

In other news, tobacco and cigarette smoking related deaths still hovering somewhere around 1500 people a day.

just to keep things in perspective 

Vaping hahaa fucking custies. I knew that shit was trouble trying to reinvent the wheel.

Anyone besides me smoke joints anymore ?

>>Turpentine Station

 

Sounds delicious.<<

 

lol

>>>>>My problem with vaping is it doesn't seem to be as effective in getting me high as smoking buds.

aye

and also that people are now dying from it. I’m glad that I only micro-smoke actual marijuana. 

Glad I skipped the whole vape thing. Never saw the appeal, seems like it was just making smot poking more complicated.

The backyard meth lab chemist jumps up a notch

 

i am in the boat that the vape, wax and edibles do not give me the high I like. The edibles I have had a few times and would do again the others, tried it, not for me. 

Sounds like it is super common to cut the oil in vape carts, 

 

https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2019/09/09/leading-oregon-cannabis-extr...

Looks like that article I posted above was pulled. But here is some more detail. One guy estimated that there are 50,000,000 cartridges out there with vitamin e oil added 

https://www.leafly.com/news/health/some-vape-cart-additive-makers-pull-p...

I'm working on a portable Vitamin E acetate detection kit

2 for $10 in the lot...

The madness continues:

https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-man-recovering-after-nearly-dying-fro...

Glad I stuck with edibles for Deep Purple tonight.

bastardization 

 

>>>Sounds like it is super common to cut the oil in vape carts,<<<

actual conversation:

 

broker/wholesaler: “Those cartridges really went fast last batch I got from you. Any way to work the price down some on a bigger order? I’ve got so many outlets wanting to stock them it’s a good opportunity to expand our reach a little but still keep the most competitive price.”

producer/farmer: “You mean the per piece price? No problem. We’ll just add *that much* more PG. (propylene glycol)

 

think about it

after you’ve thought about it, then multiply that mindset across markets from coast to coast.

Reminiscent of those halcyon cocaine days.

 

- satirical statement-

#bonghits

Wisconsin man accused in illegal THC vaping cartridge scheme

The 20-year-old is accused of manufacturing thousands of counterfeit cartridges a day.

KENOSHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin man is accused of running a 10-man operation that manufactured thousands of counterfeit vaping cartridges loaded with THC oil every day for almost two years, authorities said. Prosecutors have not charged him yet.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/wisconsin-man-accused-illegal-thc-...

 

 

$64,000 question is does 20-year-old dude have any assets that aren't already subject to forfeiture?  Inquiring victims/plaintiffs need to know.   I know they haven't linked this particular dude's bunk cartridges to any injuries, but the question will come up in other cases, if not this one.

A colleague of mine had a case where he represented the family of a kid who went all crazy on bath salts he bought online and ended up getting killed by the cops.   The real trick in that case was finding someone in the distribution chain that had any assets or insurance coverage.    

I have found a cart that I like.....  I dont love how I get it but the deal goes down so I like it.  Anyway because I live in a state where its not quite legal, yet, is there a resource out there where I can read reviews and see what people say about a certain brand? Im still a flower person but I like to take a cart with me on work trips.

What brand?

>>>>>Wisconsin man accused in illegal THC vaping cartridge scheme

 

'Zat you, Bucky?

 

smiley

>>What brand?

Americanna