Vaping has been getting a lot of press lately due to the rising number of illnesses and deaths related to this activity. Much of the talk now is centered on whether or not we should treat this in the same way we treat drug addictions. This is a very broad question due to the fact that we have three items being discussed at the same time: Nicotine, THC and the vape device itself.
Discussing the addiction aspect of this topic puts the cart before the horse in quite a few ways. First, we must dispel the notion that nicotine, in and of itself, is inherently harmful. It is not. Nicotine is found within the Nightshade family of plants which include, but are not limited to, tomatoes, potatoes, coca and tobacco plants. For perspective, the average tomato contains 7.1 ng (nanograms) of nicotine. This equates to .0071 grams. Nicotine lozenges contain either 2 or 4 milligrams of nicotine and the average cigarette contains 12. The higher the concentration coupled with the instrument of ingestion, how the nicotine goes into the body, needs to be kept in mind when talking about vaping and addictions.
https://testcountry.com/blogs/nicotine/6-common-food-with-nicotine-content
Another fact to point out is that many of the deaths and illnesses contributing to vaping are a result of items bought on the “black market” Basically just random websites on the internet or a friend of a friend. For clarification, there have been instances fairly recently of people getting arrested for making vaping products themselves:
These along with another such instance in Minnesota underscore the real problem here. Legitimate sellers who go through the proper and regulated protocols, manufacturers and wholesalers are not selling the items that are making people sick. It is the Walter White’s of this industry who are to blame.
The THC aspect of all of this is where it gets really sticky. If for no other reason but for the fact that federal laws and individual state laws are still not on the same page. The main reason for this is that THC is still classified as a schedule 1 drug. Right up there with heroin. If THC were taken off the schedule, the federal government could legalize it paving the way for more streamlined laws. If that is not going to happen, keeping THC technically as bad as heroin, we would next have to ask ourselves if there is a THC equivalent to methadone. The legal substance given to heroin addicts so they can kick that habit. Since there is no such product out there we are relegated to decreasing the THC level in the liquids that are ingested through vaping products, which leaves us back to square one: Should we treat vaping as a drug addiction?
Going through the facts as we just have would lead a rational person to say no. We should treat this problem as the facts present it. Namely, that black market nicotine and THC concentrates that are put into the liquid, and the ;liquid itself, should be cracked down on hard by law enforcement. Studying in detail exactly what makes up a vaping device should be focused on as well. Strip it down clean as you would if you’re cleaning your gun, put every single part on the table and study it all with a fine toothed comb. Chances are very good we will find items within the device that are not beneficial at all to our health, and that make the liquid and the smoke harmful to the user simply by passing through the device.
Glass Hill 