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I'm bothered by the fact that most if not all news websites don't differentiate between nicotine and THC vapes. They're completely different. Illicit THC vapes
by guanzo 7y ago
I'm bothered by the fact that most if not all news websites don't differentiate between nicotine and THC vapes. They're completely different. Illicit THC vapes are what's killing people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- grawprog 7y agoYeah as far as I read the problems were linked to illicit THC cartridges purchased on the streets tainted with hydrogen cyanide. A recent hacker news discussion about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21092770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21092770 Street drugs have always had problems with contaminants, whatever kinds of drugs they are. Unfortunately prohibition and black markets tend to lead to this sort of problem.
- bitcoinmoney 7y agoWhy would you add cyanide to a product you’re selling?
- dx87 7y agoAccording to Wikipedia, some countries use hydrogen cyanide as an ingredient in pesticide.
- cwkoss 7y agoTo be a bit more precise: myclobutanil degrades into HCN when heated to vaporization temperature The process of extracting and concentrating THC can also extract and concentrate this pesticide. Imidacloprid is another pesticide with harmful effects that has been found on cannabis, but seems to be toxic itself (rather than it's byproducts) Source: https://www.planetnatural.com/marijuana-pesticides/ https://www.planetnatural.com/marijuana-pesticides/
- otterley 7y agoPretty sure they meant "for a product for human consumption" :)
- rolltiide 7y agothey don't, the heating process makes molecules bind to other molecules forming cyanide.
- cactus2093 7y agoThe latest CDC statements have still been that there hasn't been a single common ingredient found in all the cases. And there have been something like 10% of the cases that claim to have only used tobacco and not any THC vapes. The guy that died in Oregon was using a legal vape from a regulated dispensary. News publications do a disservice by over-playing the danger, and not differentiating between thc and tobacco, or street products and regulated thc and large nationwide brands like juul. But I don't think you can fully write this off yet either. I'm personally still avoiding vaping for the time being.
- stronglikedan 7y agoI may be a conspiracy theorist, but I think it's a deliberate misinformation campaign.
- rolltiide 7y agoIt is a deliberate misinformation campaign. There are multiple issues being conflated (flavored vapes advertised to minors, vapes causing deaths) and kneejerk reactions from governments are occurring because they are not being paid off enough by the companies selling similar products.
- autoexec 7y agoI'm kind of torn on this. On one hand it seems ridiculous to me when I read that the FDA is investing Juul for advertising to minors citing the fact that their ads included "bright colors" and young adult models as evidence of that. That's very clearly bullshit, and we wouldn't hold anyone else to that insane standard. On the other hand, it also seems insane that the tobacco industry knew their product was both addictive and killing people, and that they lied about that for decades even spending massive amounts of money trying to intentionally mislead people into thinking otherwise, but instead of jailing executives and breaking up companies like Philip Morris/Altria we just let them continue to go on killing people for profit with barely a slap on the wrist. I'd say that given their actions, the tobacco industry doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt, that everything they do should be considered first in the worst possible light, and that we'd be crazy not to question their motives at every opportunity. I just can't bring myself to be sympathetic to the industry now even when I can see how people are overreacting. I realize there are new players in the game today, and entire secondary industries are getting caught up in the whole vaping thing too, but at the same time, anyone working anywhere near the tobacco industry should expect it. If we'd gone after them properly instead of letting them off the hook for 40 years of lies and countless deaths maybe I'd feel differently, but here we are.
- juped 7y ago"Bright colors" and young adult models are the playbook that worked on cigarettes - they're just reusing proven tactics.
- deelowe 7y agoIt's almost like there might be other motivations at play here.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- avocado4 7y agoNicotine vapes are a problem too. They were meant to help people quit smoking, but instead introduced a lot of people who haven't smoked before. I wonder if we could do some sort of blood test to make sure non-smokers don't get easy access to nicotine vapes.
- qzx_pierri 7y agoBig Tobacco is behind all of this. Vaping would destabilize the farm grown tobacco industry, and it was just a matter of time...... Call me crazy, but it makes sense. Anyone can create their own vape juice, but how many people are willing to cultivate tobacco?
- anon1m0us 7y agoDoes the nicotine in the vapes not come from tobacco? Is tobacco not involved in vapes at all? Why can't the tobacco companies make vapes?
- qzx_pierri 7y agoNicotine can be synthesized & sold online through sketchy markets like any other chemical.
- tmb 7y agoVaping just reopened generations of customers for business to a myriad of tobacco products, why would they choose to go back to their previous shrinking pool of poor or old cigarette buyers?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- hello_tyler 7y agoIt's both, actually. People have been counterfeiting Juul pods and they have the bad chemicals in them as well. Pretty nasty problem actually.