• Vitamin E acetate, an oil derived from Vitamin E, has been found in THC vape samples collected from people who have fallen ill across the country including nearly all of the samples collected in New York. New York’s health department posted pictures of Dank Vapes and Chronic Carts brand products found to contain vitamin E acetate. However, health officials say it’s too early to determine whether it is the cause.
  Washington Post
• Oregon officials said a middle-aged adult who died in July of respiratory illness had vaped cannabis oil purchased at a legal shop. “Pot shops kill. Close them down,” anti-legalization activist Kevin Sabet tweeted.
• Dumas de Rauly, CEO of vaporizer company The Blinc Group said Vitamin E acetate is not used in standard cannabis or vape cartridge production. “Vitamin E is what we call a preservative. That’s what you add into cosmetics to make sure the product does not become spoiled,” he said. “In no case is this a product that you should be inhaling.”
• Canopy Growth interim CEO Mark Zekulin is on “what might be termed an “everyone calm down” tour this week,” CNN writes.
• The New York Times’ opinion page asks “Have We Hit Peak Vape Panic?”

Quick Hits

1. In the Guardian, I talked to cannabis etiquette maven Lizzie Post.
2. The Stranger‘s Josh Jardine parodies the pot press releases he (and I) receive every day.

• In 2018, California law enforcement confiscated 1.4M plants and broke up 889 outdoor grows.

• Even so “illegal grows are still rampant across wide swaths of the national forests in California, leaving behind a trail of garbage, human waste, dead animals and caustic chemicals. Nearly all of these farms are the work of Mexican drug trafficking organizations, posing dangers not just for the environment, but to hikers and others who might encounter them.

Quick Hits

• New to weed or the weed world? Vox answers nine questions about legalization you were afraid to ask.

• CanWell CEO Terence Fracassa was a former business partner of Murphy’s at a cannabis investing firm. Fracassa alleges he was pushed out.
• Acreage also faces challenges to its business structure in Ohio and Massachusetts.
• An Acreage spokesperson told Forbes the company couldn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
• Check out WeedWeek’s interview with Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy and my take on whether Acreage director and former Speaker of the House John Boehner(R) is good for cannabis.

• U.S. Stocks he likes include Curaleaf, Cresco Labs, Harvest Health and Recreation, Trulieve and Green Thumb Industries.
• Fagan: “The markets where these companies operate are fantastic. Massachusetts converted from medical to recreational sales and is growing above a 500% annualized clip right now. Even a mature market like Arizona is still growing at a better than 30% annual rate.”

• The counterfeit products typically sell at unlicensed dispensaries for much less than the originals and are not tested for contaminants.
• Though it’s unclear how severe the problem is, California brand Loudpack said it spent $2.5M to redesign the packaging and hardware for its Kingpen vapes and the counterfeiters quickly caught up.

Quick Hit

• A lawsuit accuses the owners of a high profile dispensary in Orange County (Calif.) of defrauding investors.
  MJBiz

• The state is also thinking about whether to scrap its troubled track and trace system for a system where businesses report their sales and then get audited.

• Florida’s Supreme Court will hear a case which could disrupt the state’s vertically integrated MED industry and create many more licensing opportunities.
  Sun-Sentinel
• Four Michigan MED producers are under recall after an investigation showed unsafe levels of heavy metals.
  MLive

• In a relatively rare defense of Phylos and its CEO Mowgli Holmes, Reggie Gaudino, of Front Range Biosciences said. “They didn’t steal anything,” he said. “They might not have been completely transparent with their messaging, but nothing else that people are pissed about they should be pissed about.”
• Gaudino added the industry “screwed ourselves” by selling cuttings in dispensaries. The industry already “screwed ourselves,” by putting cuttings in dispensaries. “All Monsanto or Dow have to do is go to a dispensary and buy everything that everyone’s buying,” he added. “They can [genetically] sequence it themselves, and they’re home free.”
• Part 2 of the series discusses intellectual property strategies for cannabis companies including defenses against patent trolls, and the possible value of plant patents to protect cannabis companies.

• Several years ago I suggested the combined company could dominate cannabis.
  S.F. Weekly

Quick Hit

1. The Chicago Tribune discusses the complications of trademarking weed: “The predicament… is akin to if Frito-Lay were able to trademark Cheetos but not the name of its Flamin’ Hot flavor.”

• The announcement comes shortly before the DEA must respond to a lawsuit from Dr. Sue Sisley, an Arizona psychiatrist who has been fighting for years to study MED on veterans with PTSD.
• The only federally legal marijuana farm is at the University of Mississippi. Sisley, and others, have said the crop there is not good enough quality for testing.

• At Rolling Stone, EJ Dickson asks whether his rigid views do more harm than good.

Quick Hit

1. President Trump reiterated his support for states setting their own own marijuana laws.
   Marijuana Moment