{"id":38227,"date":"2019-09-17T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/09\/17\/vape-crisis-hits-fever-pitch-as-ap-reports-on-synthetic-marijuana-in-cbd-vapes\/"},"modified":"2019-09-18T00:46:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T08:46:45","slug":"vape-crisis-hits-fever-pitch-as-ap-reports-on-synthetic-marijuana-in-cbd-vapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/09\/17\/vape-crisis-hits-fever-pitch-as-ap-reports-on-synthetic-marijuana-in-cbd-vapes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vape Crisis Hits Fever Pitch as AP Reports on \u2018Synthetic Marijuana\u2019 in CBD Vapes"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

On Sept. 16, the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0reported on the tale of Jay Jenkins, a South Carolina man who took two puffs of what he thought was a CBD vaporizer before he ended up the Lexington Medical Center. He suffered from acute respiratory failure and went into a coma. Thankfully, he came out of the coma, was released the next day and doctors gave him the cartridge in a biohazard bag. The AP sent the cartridge that Jenkins vaped to be tested in a lab with other products. The results: the cartridge included \u201ca type of synthetic marijuana\u201d that is thought to have killed 11 people in Europe.<\/p>\n

But Jenkins was only an example of the wider story the AP detailed: the fact that their investigation found some of the people looking to make a quick buck in the booming CBD industry are actually using banned substances masquerading as cannabinoids \u2014 and not the all-natural CBD claimed on the packaging.<\/p>\n

Cannabis Now has been following the synthetic cannabinoid issue for years. We\u2019ve reported on how \u201csynthetic marijuana\u201d is used as a catch-all term for any chemical that attempts to mimic the effects of THC, but because the substances are actually nothing like cannabis and produce wildly different effects,\u00a0they should be called by the street names<\/a>\u00a0\u201cSpice\u201d or \u201cK2.\u201d We\u2019ve talked about the importance of\u00a0knowing where your CBD comes from<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0mislabeling of unregulated CBD products<\/a>\u00a0for years, and we\u00a0first reported<\/a>\u00a0on the issue of Spice-contaminated \u201cCBD\u201d cartridges last month.<\/p>\n

Two years ago<\/a>,\u00a0the DEA placed six \u201csynthetic cannabinoids\u201d similar to the kind being touted as CBD in Jenkin\u2019s vape on the list of Schedule I narcotics, defined as substances that are highly dangerous and with no known medical value. But that\u2019s the thing about science, there is always someone working to get around that next ban.<\/p>\n

As we could see with the results of the 30 cartridges tested and data collected by the AP, banning does not mean the substance stops showing up in products. In a separate piece, the AP\u00a0explained how they conducted the investigation.<\/a><\/p>\n

First, they reached out to law enforcement to see if any CBD tests had reported a positive for the presence of \u201csynthetic marijuana.\u201d Officials in nine states told the AP they had seen CBD oils with positive hits for synthetic cannabinoids. None of the states who reported positive hit \u2014 most of them in the Bible Belt \u2014 have legal adult-use cannabis markets with safeguards for consumers. Twenty-two states said they had found no evidence of synthetic cannabinoids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information provided by law enforcement agencies and laboratories showed 128 positive samples out of more than 350 tested,\u201d read the statement on the AP\u2019s methodology in the reporting. \u201cMost hits for synthetic marijuana were in vape products. Edibles such as gummy bears accounted for 36 positives. Three samples contained the powerful opioid fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea that nearly three percent of the vape pens tested by law enforcement contained fentanyl is fairly traumatic.<\/p>\n

Then, in the AP\u2019s own testing, they bought 29 carts in four states, in addition to the Yolo CBD Oil pen that sent Jenkins to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Also, an AP reporter went to see if the Yolo CBD Oil brand that made Jenkins sick was available still at the store he bought it at. It wasn\u2019t, but when the reporter asked for something else, the clerk recommended their \u201ctop-seller\u201d house carts made by the store\u2019s owner. All of the carts tested positive for synthetic marijuana and the store owner did not respond to the AP\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the 30 vapes that AP paid to be tested, 10 contained synthetic marijuana,\u201d the report noted. \u201cThe lab analyzed 28 vapes for CBD and found that eight had no detectable level, while 14 were less than 0.3% CBD by weight. The other six ranged between 1.07% and 8.87% CBD by weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the vape crisis \u2014 either caused by additives and cutting agents or banned \u201csynthetic marijuana\u201d compounds \u2014 will likely push regulators to find a sweet. Too much regulation and people will turn to the illicit market to save money. Too little regulation and bad actors will take advantage of the legal marketplace.<\/p>\n

TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you know if your cannabis products are tested?<\/p>\n

The post Vape Crisis Hits Fever Pitch as AP Reports on \u2018Synthetic Marijuana\u2019 in CBD Vapes<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Vape Crisis Hits Fever Pitch as AP Reports on \u2018Synthetic Marijuana\u2019 in CBD Vapes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 16, the\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0reported on the tale of Jay Jenkins, a South Carolina man who took two puffs of what he thought was a CBD vaporizer before he ended up the Lexington Medical Center. He suffered from acute respiratory failure and went into a coma. Thankfully, he came outContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[605,50,12493,240,11756,4102,3663,5017],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38228,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38227\/revisions\/38228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}