As the US vaping crisis continues, the Canadian cannabis sector worries the health scare will stifle the regulated vape-pen industry before it can even become legal.
Reuters, FinFeed
- A second Canadian case of VAPI (vaping-associated pulmonary illness) appeared in Quebec. This is the first “confirmed” Canadian VAPI case (the other, in London, is “suspected”). Both cases were related to nicotine products.
Ici Radio-Canada—In French - Health Canada warned Canadians who use vaping devices to “monitor themselves for symptoms of pulmonary illness.”
NewsWire
Many struggling companies hoped legal extracts and the anticipated vape-pen boom would turn their fortunes around, as the Cannalysts‘ Craig Wiggins told Bloomberg. (That’s why companies have been stockpiling low-grade flower.)
GrowthOp, Bloomberg
- Alberta plans to review its tobacco and smoking laws to introduce measures to restrict vaping. BC is tightening rules on who may be licensed to sell e-cigarettes and vaping products.
The Star, Vancouver Sun - Lawyer Trina Fraser noted Canadian legal REC vape products will be subject to strict Health Canada regulation with mandatory testing for contaminants like those suspected of causing VAPI.
Twitter—Trina Fraser
Social media posts warned a batch of shatter made by illicit Canadian extracts-seller Phyto is contaminated with something (possibly pine resin, or silica) that leaves white grease on dabbers’ lips. Others warned of the same issues with Green Goblin–brand illicit shatter.
Twitter—Val Thornton, Dan Goulet, Bohn681
In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, 15 US physicians who biopsied the lungs of VAPI patients repudiated suggestions that oil accumulation in the lungs (such as many suspected was the product of vitamin E oil) is a cause. “Instead,” one author noted, “it seems to be some kind of direct chemical injury, similar to what one might see with exposures to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agents.”
NEJM, CTV News
- Data analysts Headset (who have advertised on WeedWeek) found US legal sales of vape-pens has declined since the beginning of the scandal, but suggested that because most illness has been associated with illicit products, sales may rebound as customers switch from bootleg vape carts to the legal market.
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