More than 200 patients nationwide are being treated for a life-threatening respiratory condition apparently related to vaping. It’s marked by severe shortness of breath typically after a few days of nausea, fever and fatigue. Some patients have had to go on ventilators.

Patients tend to be in their late teens or early twenties and otherwise healthy. Their reluctance to discuss their behavior is making it harder for doctors to determine a cause of the illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told vapers to avoid bootleg products and to stop modifying vapes.

From the New York Times:

To become inhalable, nicotine or THC must be mixed with solvents that dissolve and deliver the drugs. The solvents, or oils, heat up during aerosolization to become vapor. But some oil droplets may be left over as the liquid cools back down, and inhaling those drops may cause breathing problems and lung inflammation.

“Inhaling oil into your lungs is extremely dangerous behavior that could result in death,” said Thomas Eissenberg, who studies vaping at Virginia Commonwealth University…

Many vaping ingredients are not listed on the products. Vitamin E oil appears to have been a common substance associated with the severe and sudden respiratory problems in some of the New York cases, according to state health officials. It is not known how it was used. Vitamin E is sometimes advertised as a supplement in cannabidiol oil, which is not designed for vaping but has been used that way.

Journalist Mike Sager’s parents let him smoke pot, and he let his teenage son smoke pot:
Patch

Like my own parents, when it came to my son’s marijuana use — speaking now ten years later, well beyond the statute of limitations — I made what most parents would probably consider an unusual call.

Quite unlike my folks, Bev and Marv, I had more than 30 years of personal experience smoking marijuana. And there is no disputing the fact that I have thus far led a successful life and career. At the end of the day, that’s been the most important thing. Stoned or not, nobody can ever say I didn’t conduct myself with care.

Classic stories by Sager:

A fascinating story in Politico recounts a series of eerily similar burglaries at Seattle-area grow sites:

“The robbers showed an uncanny sense of timing, striking just as the growers had amassed inventories of cut, cured, ready-to-sell product worth thousands, even tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The growers began posting news of the heists on Instagram, swapping conjectures as to how the burglars knew where and when to strike. Two hypotheses emerged. The first: that an employee at a retail pot shop was either involved in the break-ins or telling the burglars whom to hit.

“But as the burglaries continued, the growers came to suspect that the criminals had found another way of getting the information they needed to target vulnerable businesses offering big payoffs…”

Washington state has some of the most liberal cannabis disclosure laws and some suspect the thieves plot their targets based on data which is publicly available, either on purpose or inadvertantly.

Read it all.

A chemical found in the cannabis plant has “significant therapy potential” for treating pancreatic cancer, according to a study in mice at Harvard’s Dana Farber Cancer Center. The chemical FBL-03G is a derivative of a flavonoid, which are found in cannabis and other plants.
Yahoo, Frontiers in Oncology

More big name lifestyle brands are getting their hands green. And their interest isn’t limited to traditional cannabis products. Cannabis scented perfume is having a moment.
Bloomberg (2x)

A study from the Pew Charitable Trusts found it remains very difficult to predict cannabis tax revenue. The biggest obstacle is lack of data: Analysts have at best a few years of receipts on which to base their forecasts.

Election day 2020 is shaping up as a big day for MED and REC ballot initiatives.

Are you registered to vote? Click here to register or confirm your registration.

Irvine, Calif.-based Weedmaps, said it would stop listing and accepting ads from unlicensed retailers at an unspecified date later this year. The announcement was welcomed by licensed businesses who believe Weedmaps’ Yelp-like service is essential to unlicensed businesses. ????WeedWeek California has more.
L.A. Times