Potential Culprits In Mystery Lung Illnesses: Black-market Vaping Products

Contaminant found in marijuana vaping products linked to deadly lung illnesses, tests show - The Washington Post https://apple.news/A-wW5xT3FSeiVgNBMOrbVew  

Honestly, this USA Today is one of the first articles I've read where someone is actually talking to some of the people who have experienced first hand serious health issues from the underground and worthy of a read:

Vaping illnesses: Crisis mixes teens, black market THC, no regulation  

I haven't posted since May 2018 but now it's time.

I hate to say it, but I saw these health issues coming when they decided to go to war against teen vaping and ramped up regs, including making it very difficult for minors to obtain legal and semi-regulated nic products. I support changes to do this but there are unintended consequences the FDA should have been prepared for...and they weren't. The Black Market.

As investigations continue into the causes of these terrible health issues, which incidentally appear to have started after the last round of regs to prevent teen vaping, we will learn more about the common denominator in these cases. I suspect that counterfeit, low quality juices and pods are making their way to the streets...basically where kids can access it. Adults can just go to a shop or online, kids deal these pods in schools. I know because my son is a 10th grader and tells me all about it. Additionally, it wouldn't surprise me if China was the source of some of the counterfeits...they are masters at stealing IP without regard and quickly flooding the market with cheap alternatives and a history of poor safety standards (poison in dog food, dangerous baby products, etc.)...they have been doing it for years.

Unfortunately there has never been much wisdom in Washington DC and they are control freaks that want to dictate how we live our lives. Once a new reg is in place, it's often hard to unwind. However, in this case, I think it will end OK as long as they wait to see the evidence of what is causing this and start cracking down on the black market, the source of the illnesses IMO, although they should have started BEFORE the regs went into place.

There's going to be a bumpy road ahead to get to the destination but I think this will work itself out with an eventual solution that will reduce access for kids while giving adults the choices they need. Meanwhile, I have a few RTAs, plenty of different wire types and gauges to twist my claptons and lots of TFA melon flavors and 1mg nic 90/10 VG/PG...none of this stuff is going away soon so I'm not freaking out

Cas  

Someone needs to produce a detailed documentary about the documented research about how safe vaping is. Hopefully that will give the general public as well as potential new vapers some education about what is safe and what isn't.

The contaminated products that are circulating on the black market are what's killing people.

Something of this magnitude needs to be put out in the media otherwise I'm afraid that this industry will die out and a lot of shops will go out of business. It's time to take action, the media has demonized vaping. It's come to a point where most folks can't vape in public in peace.

What are your thoughts on how to combat this issue? It's terrible what has happened to everyone that has been sickened or died as a result of vaping bad products. The CDC and FDA can't seem to get a handle on what's really the culprit and the media isn't giving us any details.

I feel perfectly fine as I've been vaping for almost 10 years now and I feel great in fact never better since I quit smoking cigarettes. Now I'm a bit paranoid and wonder if I should just give up vaping. This whole this is getting to me and I can't even vape around my family in peace now.  

I've seen a few awesome article links posted that show the truth to this THC/VIT E Outbreak. Please post them here if you have them.

We all need as much positivity as possible while all this mudslinging bollocks is going on

@Katya You are up - post your lil butt off

The emotional and irrational hysteria in the US about the “vaping-related” (or cannabis-related?) lung disease that goes far beyond confirmation bias - Thursday, 05 September 2019
By Dr Farsalinos

The Rest of the Story: Tobacco and Alcohol News Analysis and Commentary - Thursday, September 05, 2019
By Michael Siegel

The US and UK see vaping very differently. Here's why
By Katie Hunt, CNN
Updated at 1937 GMT (0337 HKT) September 17, 2019  

What is the black market? When you hear black market, I think of Fasttech or even 3f vapes, what do you consider the black market.  

I know that there are threads covering bans in individual states, but I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread which covers all state bans.

So far, I know of the temporary, but complete ban, in Massachusetts, and a flavor ban announced in Michigan, Washington state, and Rhode Island. The New York ban is not in effect yet, but will be on October 4, I believe. Not sure about the other three states.


If there are more states which I'm not aware of, please list them.

New York Bans Sale of Flavored E-cigarettes, the First State in the U.S. to Do So

Rhode Island Governor Bans Sales Of Flavored Vaping Products

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/09/24/massachusetts-ban-all-vaping-product-sales-months-toughest-state-crackdown/

Michigan's flavored vaping ban in effect: Here are the new rules  

I don't believe that the sudden rash of vaping illnesses and deaths was random. The timing and short duration of the outbreak has a pattern. Vaping has been around for a long time - more than a decade. The recent tragedies-with the media and government hype, has been used as a weapon against vaping. The outbreak was very short, but hurt a lot of young people. Not one long term smoker turned vaper was affected. And almost all who were sickened were young and admitted to using eliquid from black market cartridges with THC from Dank Vapes to try to get high. But the media didn't release that important fact for months. Meanwhile, they and the government - including the CDC - actively warned against all vaping, and have implemented more laws against vaping.

I find it odd that after finally getting to the common denominator of the cause of the deaths and illnesses, the government and media still has not identified who owns Dank, and how that company managed to distribute for only a few months the deadly THC eliquid vape that harmed so many people in such a short amount of time? And Dank was the only company identified? Then it suddenly stopped? And it was national news? If this was a systemic epidemic in the vaping industry, then all distributors would be front and center. But it was only Dank. Out of the hundreds of eliquid vendors, it was just one?

I'm pretty good at tracking down owners of corporations and businesses, but I've had no success in identifying the owners of the one supplier mentioned. And if there were multiple suppliers of the deadly THC vape liquid, it would be published.  

This just showed up while I was having my morning coffee. I am in shock.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/michigan-becomes-first-state-to-ban-flavored-e-cigarettes/2019/09/03/34f234c6-ce4c-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html

I guess the propaganda has worked.  

CDC Confirms 8th Vaping-Related Death Eighth death linked to vaping as illnesses surge around the United States US vaping illnesses top 500, Missouri man is 8th death Desensitized yet?