Vaping

Hillsborough School Board member Patricia Rendon, Ellen Snelling of the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance and Terry Kemble of the nonprofit Protect Our Children all favored Owen’s push.
“Youth vaping is epidemic in Hillsborough County,” Snelling told commissioners.
The Florida Department of Children and Family Services annual survey of youth substance abuse showed the percentage of Hillsborough middle and high school students who had vaped nicotine in the prior 30 days to be above the statewide average.

How do you solve a problem like Colorado’s teen vaping rate, the highest in the nation?
That’s the question lawmakers are gathering on Wednesday to try and answer. They’ll be asking questions about all things vaping as they consider new measures to stop the epidemic, including what the science shows about health risks.
A group of doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado had a few insights they'd like to offer.
Among them was lung expert Dr. Robin Deterding who, when it comes to talking about the health risks of vaping, is blunt. 
“You're inhaling a chemistry experiment,” Deterding said. “And that's bad for your lungs."

“We had a kid that had to be taken over to Utah and put in a mental health facility. He was there about a month or more because of a drug-induced psychosis caused by too much marijuana products. The only thing that was in his system was THC,” Hildreth said. “It was scary for his parents and us because no one knew what was happening. None of us had ever seen marijuana do that to anyone before.”

As an educator, you can play an active role in fighting the teen vaping epidemic. FDA research suggests that when teachers talk about the health consequences of e-cigarettes and schools enforce anti-vaping policies, students may be less likely to vape. Use these resources to start an honest conversation with your class and help to change social norms at your school.

CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and local health departments, and other clinical and public health partners are investigating a national outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI).

The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners has determined that the prohibition on the sale, possession, and use of vapor‐generating electronic devices and vapor products should be extended to include young adults under the age of 21.

The SAFE Banking Act (H.R. 1595/S. 1200) contains no public health guardrails to deal with the pot vaping crisis or incredibly potent flavored marijuana vapes that have been warned about by the Surgeon General. • The SAFE Banking Act would allow billions in investment into the same illegal marijuana companies that are creating marijuana vapes like those that are causing this crisis.

Link continues to update with information.  Latest from the Florida Department of Health on the Vape Lung Illness Crisis. The number of vape lung illnesses increased from 27 to 39. When will Governor DeSantis announce his plan to fight against this crisis? According to the CDC, most cases are linked to vaped marijuana (THC). What is the FL medical marijuana industry doing to protect patients? 

Talking Points:
• 77% of the cases of illness and at least 2 deaths have been connected to THC oils.
• At a time when we are investigating the causes of this rash of deaths and illnesses connected to marijuana oils and vapes, all marijuana legalization efforts and THC vaping oil sales should pause.
• This is not a black-market issue, it is the result of allowing Big Marijuana - an addictionfor-profit drug industry backed by Big Tobacco and companies like Juul - to mass produce these oils and vapes, along with candies, gummies, and other dangerously potent forms of the drug.
• Big Tobacco, E-Cigarette and Vaping Companies and the Marijuana industry share many of the same investors. The industries are connected by billions in investments.

According to the department's statistics , there's been 27 reported cases of lung injury connected to vaping in Florida in 2019 and one death.

• Patients in this investigation have reported symptoms such as:
  • cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
  • nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
  • fatigue, fever, or abdominal pain
• Some patients have reported that their symptoms developed over a few days, while others have reported that their symptoms developed over several weeks. A lung infection does not appear to be causing the symptoms.

Vaping Pens... Honeycomb   - the "Pass Out Pen" 

• The Ripper- The Ripper 2.0 is new, improved and the only Sub -ohm conceal (concealer) vaporizer for oils and wax ( as it is a 2 in 1 unit). High capacity, high powered vaporizer make it the most powerful pocket vape for oils and wax and also disguised as a light makes it ultra discrete. 
• The Elf- "Small, compact, stylish and most importantly it is Auto-Draw button less design of this high quality aerospace feel ELF concealer. Available in 5 classy colors this small unit has effortless draws amounting in big rips and large vapor. Easy to use simply inhale. It is the only unit that is button less that can fit wide 510 thread cartridges with its magnetic adapter, and be a pull thru unit and still work with Ceramic heater cartridges that usually require more power to vape them.
• '510' thread- five 10 thread-510 threaded is a term used to describe the threading that connects vape cartridges and batteries – there are 10 screw threads, and the cartridge is generally five millimeters in length (510). "510 Thread" has been used to describe all sorts of vape pen parts, whether they are threaded or not. It's a non technical term created by an original e-cig factory (Joyetech) to describe the battery to tank connection they were using. While it was considered proprietary at the time, this (and most other e-cig innovations) are passed around freely between manufacturers. Most pens today are all based on this 510 thread.

• 7 people have died from severe respiratory complications associated with vaping. At least 380 cases have been reported across the United States.
• Early reports link marijuana vapes to 84 percent of the lung illnesses being reported in the wake of the vaping epidemic.
• 84% of the cases of illness and at least 2 of the 7 deaths have been connected to THC oils.

In the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers surveyed almost 50,000 adolescents in Arizona. The researchers found that among teens who used any form of cannabis, 72 percent had experience with the more potent products.

Overall, the researchers found that 33 percent of the teens had tried some form of pot and 24 percent said they had used concentrated forms. The likelihood of a student using cannabis rose with age: 20 percent of the eighth graders said they’d used the drug, compared to 35 percent of the 10th graders and 46 percent of the 12th graders.

Similarly, 15 percent of the eighth graders, 25 percent of the 10th graders and 33 percent of 12th graders said they had used cannabis concentrates. Concentrate users had the highest rates of having tried other drugs.

A Paulding County student collapsed and nearly died after taking a hit off a vape pen. The dramatic scene unfolded in front of a class when the South Paulding High School student collapsed and stopped breathing.
 
*** This is exactly why we need to raise the age for purchasing these products to 21... give our youth a chance.

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic investigations are also required. Finally, the health consequences of passive vaping should be also considered.  
In conclusion, the new social phenomenon of vaping may slide from nicotine towards other psychoactive drugs (e.g., THC); it therefore deserves the urgent scientific investigation and strict risk assessments which are especially important when young people are concerned. In particular, the presence of toxic substances in the cannabis aerosols generated by e-cigs—from multiple models, brands, BHO and e-liquid manufacturers—need to be investigated.
A synthesis of the practical recipes and experiments reported on the Internet (in addition to our own experiments) shows that the simple, direct use of purified cannabis extracts in e-cigs is not easy because cannabinoids are poorly soluble in e-liquids. Indeed, used pure or in mixture with glycerol, the propylene glycol (PG, or propane-1,2-diol) that is commonly used in e-liquids has both hygroscopic and hydrophilic properties. Consequently, it is not miscible with mineral and vegetable oils and fats. In contrast, cannabinoid concentrates are very lipid soluble, but water insoluble. Furthermore, PG, glycerol, terpenoids, plant fats and waxes, cannabinoid concentrates and THC are very viscous substances. Accordingly, the manufacture of a homogeneous solution using these viscous liquids is a tedious task. Cannabinoid concentrates resemble more a thick, sticky, gummy resin than a liquid. We can infer from these facts that they do not mix readily with glycols, and even less so with glycerol. The addition of terpenoids (e.g., limonene) or lecithin has been advocated to help make cannabis oils miscible...

About 27% of high school students who have used both marijuana and e-cigarettes reported using the devices to vaporize cannabis. Those most likely to vaporize pot with e-cigarettes included males and younger students.