Vaping Marijuana

VAPING MARIJUANA Teenagers are increasingly using an odorless way to inhale marijuana — e-cigarette vaporizers, according to a study reported in USA Today.  Researchers at Yale University based their findings on answers from a survey sent to nearly 4,000 Connecticut high school students.  About 28% of students in the study said they had tried e-cigarettes.  Of the high school students who have used both marijuana and e-cigarettes, 27% reported using the devices to vaporize cannabis.  Almost 85% of those students used flavored vapes, like fruit, candy, mint and menthol. E-cigarettes are known by many different names. They are sometimes called “e-cigs,” “e-hookahs,” “mods,” “vape pens,” “vapes,” “tank systems,” and “electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).” E-cigarettes vaporize, rather than burn, substances, allowing users to inhale without taking in the carcinogens that are caused by combustion. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the e-cigarette aerosol that users breathe from the device and exhale can contain harmful substances, including:

• Nicotine
• Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs
• Flavorings such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to a serious lung disease
• Volatile organic compounds
• Cancer-causing chemicals
• Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead1

Vaping cannabis oils or hash may release higher levels of THC than smoking dried leaves, the researchers wrote. And previous research has shown that THC has negative effects on the developing teen brain. Marijuana use in all forms can cause several health problems such as short-term memory loss, slow learning, decreased sperm count and lung damage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaporizers give kids a better way to hide what they’re inhaling.  It’s so much easier to conceal e-cigarette pot use when “vaping” because it lacks the characteristic pungent smell of marijuana in the vapor.  It’s possible to use pot in a much less detectable way. Among the marijuana users who were using e-cigarettes, 29 percent had vaped dried cannabis leaves, while 23 percent had used e-cigarettes to vaporize hash oil, a concentrated resin extract of marijuana, and 15 percent had used the devices to vape THC-infused wax, according to the researchers. Hashes and oils can have THC concentrations up to 30 times higher than dried leaves, leading to addiction health dangers even faster.