Among patients in Illinois and Wisconsin, 83 percent admitted vaping cannabis extracts bought on the black market. ... some of them may have been reluctant to admit using illegal drugs, and it's not clear that any of them were using standard e-cigarettes.
The description of the vapes used by the patients indicates that most were black-market products represented as containing cannabis extracts. "Patients reported using 14 distinct brands of
Tetrahydrocannabinol products. E-cigarettes have been in wide use for years, while these cases have cropped up only recently. It therefore seems likely that the agents responsible for the symptoms are relatively new.
One possible culprit, identified in most samples of cannabis extracts tested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and health officials in New York, is vitamin E acetate, an oil-based nutritional supplement that may be dangerous when inhaled. "Legally sold nicotine based e-cigs are not harmless," former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb said on Twitter last week. "But most of these severe cases, so far, appear to be symptoms that can occur when either oils or lipid-containing substances enter lungs. This points to illegal products that are being cut with dangerous chemicals as a culprit." He added that "legitimate e-liquids are generally based on chemicals that are water soluble, not oils that can cause acute lung injury."
The description of the vapes used by the patients indicates that most were black-market products represented as containing cannabis extracts. "Patients reported using 14 distinct brands of
Tetrahydrocannabinol products. E-cigarettes have been in wide use for years, while these cases have cropped up only recently. It therefore seems likely that the agents responsible for the symptoms are relatively new.
One possible culprit, identified in most samples of cannabis extracts tested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and health officials in New York, is vitamin E acetate, an oil-based nutritional supplement that may be dangerous when inhaled. "Legally sold nicotine based e-cigs are not harmless," former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb said on Twitter last week. "But most of these severe cases, so far, appear to be symptoms that can occur when either oils or lipid-containing substances enter lungs. This points to illegal products that are being cut with dangerous chemicals as a culprit." He added that "legitimate e-liquids are generally based on chemicals that are water soluble, not oils that can cause acute lung injury."
