And although at least one dedicated anti-marijuana legalization group repeatedly claimed—very falsely, as it turned out—that several people were sickened with EVALI after using products purchased from legal cannabis dispensaries, nearly all reported cases came from states with no legal cannabis.
That may have been so with EVALI, but vaporizer pens are not risk-free.
MILAN, ITALY – JANUARY 13: A guest wears a black wool beanie hat with a pompom, a light brown coat, …
Researchers plugged the pens into a power source connected to a wall socket and used a “smoking machine” to mimic a human’s breathing action and draw out the resulting aerosols.
Researchers reported detecting “measurable levels” of chromium, nickel and copper—three metals known to be in the heating elements and coils of vaporizer pens—in the resulting aerosols.
Since studies of e-cigarettes revealed heavy metal uptake, similar findings from structurally similar cannabis vaporizer devices shouldn’t be too surprising.
I’m an award-winning investigative reporter and I’ve covered the legalization movement and the cannabis industry with a political economy lens for more than a decade.