WIRED UK | October 4, 2019
And these percentages might be underestimates says Eric Lindblom, a former FDA tobacco control official now at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute. Of the four states with the highest number of reported cases – California, Texas, Wisconsin and Illinois – only one (California) has currently legalised recreational cannabis use. Patients in states where cannabis is illegal might be less willing to admit that they had been vaping THC.
Despite the evidence strongly hinting that vapes containing THC are at least partly responsible for this outbreak of lung illness, no state has brought out specific regulation targeting THC vapes. “It seems kind of backwards given that the problem is clearly much more closely linked to vaping cannabis THC products,” says Lindblom. “It totally doesn’t address the mystery illness in any way.”