The great American panic of the vape

The great American panic of vaping comes to its appalling conclusion. By the time I write these lines, five people have died at the hospital and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating 450 reports of convulsions caused by people. Politicians are calling for a new crackdown on the e-cigarette industry, which was blamed for a "tobacco epidemic" among young people long before these events occurred. Market leader Juul is being investigated by the FDA. Juul products are banned in his own hometown, San Francisco, and they may be banned across the country.

Moral panics rarely come out of nowhere and there is a grain of truth in it. Dozens of people, mostly young men, have been hospitalized after being vapoted in recent weeks. This is not a lie, but it is not the whole truth. They were vaping illegal drugs. The aligned forces against electronic cigarettes in the United States – and these are legions – have done everything to hide this fact.

The prelude to fright occurred in April when the FDA announced that 35 people had been "convulsed" after using electronic cigarettes. The FDA press release was released just two days before commissioner Scott Gottlieb left office. Gottlieb, who now works for Pfizer, has been cracking down on e-cigarettes for two years, threatening to ban electronic cigarette flavors and remove entire product lines. It was his knockout.

Details of "convulsions and convulsions" were meager on the floor. Their severity was unknown and there was no evidence that they had been caused by a vaping. It was not clear either when they took place. The 35 cases represented the sum of the incidents recorded over a 10-year period between 2010 and 2019. The FDA admitted that the facts were vague, but nevertheless hypothesized that nicotine was to blame. The agency urged the public to visit its website and report more cases. What they did. In a few months, the number of reports had increased to 127.

The situation worsened in mid-August when 22 young adults were hospitalized due to breathing difficulties in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. All had a recent history of vaping. Early reports mentioned very little, but most, if not all, of them were spraying tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) oil, not standard juice. The majority admitted. Others may have hesitated to deflate since THC is the active ingredient in cannabis and is illegal in all three states.

The case of Adam Hergenreder is unfortunately typical. The 18-year-old from Illinois developed a fever, started to vomit and had difficulty breathing after spraying a THC cartridge purchased from a dealer. Recovered at the hospital, he fears never to be the same again. "My lungs are like 70-year-olds," he said.

At least he recovered. Some others did not have that chance. On August 23, an anonymous individual in Illinois died as a result of what the New York Times "Mysterious disease of the lungs linked to atrophy". By that time, Wisconsin and Illinois had reported that 50 people, mostly young men, had been hospitalized for respiratory problems related to vaping. The vast majority admitted to having vaporized THC. Since then, it has become apparent that most of them not only ejaculate THC from the black market, but also from the same brand of black market THC ("Dank Vape").

There are now five "vaping deaths" in the United States, all of which have been reported in the last three weeks. A man in Oregon died of respiratory failure after spraying marijuana oil that would have been purchased at a legal clinic. Death occurred in July, but curiously, it was only reported last week. A Minnesota man, who was suffering from long-standing health problems, died after vaporizing illicit THC in August – one of 18 state lung disease cases, all linked to the disease. 39, illegal THC oil. A California man, described as "at least 55 years old and suffering from chronic diseases," also died after vaporizing THC. A fifth death occurred in Indiana, but no details were made public because of the privacy laws.

It's not necessary to use a de-stoner and a magnifying glass to understand what's going on here. The increase in the number of hospitalizations for acute lung disease is real and worrisome, but there is a common denominator. In Winconsin, 89% of cases involved people who admitted to having sprayed THC. In Iowa, three out of four patients admitted to having vaporized THC. In Los Angeles County, "almost all" cases involved THC. In New Mexico and Utah, all patients admitted to having sprayed THC oil, as all patients in Kings County, California. In New York State, doctors have received "many cases of serious pneumonia among people who" used at least one spray product containing cannabis. "

The finger points straight to the black market THC cartridges contaminated with cutting agents or thickening agents. It's more of a war on drugs problem than an electronic cigarette problem. The sudden outbreak of hospitalization and the initial clustering of cases are typical of what happens when a "bad batch" of illicit drugs hits the streets. In all likelihood, that's exactly what happened.

The most likely culprit is vitamin E acetate, an additive used as a thickener on the black market since the end of last year. Vitamin E acetate is harmless and has been associated with lipoid pneumonia, which can be fatal. Whatever the chemical that turns out to be the killer, it's not nicotine.

You may also choose to believe that vaping of water-based nicotine-containing fluids became extremely dangerous in parts of the United States in mid-2019 when it was safely used by millions of people around the world for more than ten years. This absurd proposal is essentially the message that was sent to the American public this summer.

Most US health facilities are opposed to vaping on the first day. Unlike the UK, where only the whimsical fringe continues to oppose the use of electronic cigarettes, the United States, a mendacious coalition of anti-smoking groups, alchemists and intellectuals. 39, government institutions have not failed to spread fear and misinformation.

Vaping has lowered smoking rates among teens and adults in the United States, as well as in Britain. However, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) deftly defines e-cigarettes as tobacco products, which allows it to say that "smoking" is increasing among high school students even as cigarette consumption falls record. In California, several universities have become factories specializing in scientific junk food, producing alarmist stories about the supposed dangers of electronic cigarettes and promoting the discredited theory of the "gateway" (which says that vaping leads to smoking). This is accompanied by an incessant effort to spread the fear of nicotine. Marketed as "soothing" and "therapeutic" when sold by the pharmaceutical industry, it becomes a "brain poison" when sold in vape stores.

The fact that Vapers was hospitalized for acute lung disease was a gift for the vultures of the tobacco control industry in America. When the FDA announced the "seizures" of vaping in April, the agency blamed conventional electronic cigarettes with the warning that "seizures are known potential side effects of nicotine toxicity." In mid-August, after admitting a group of THC users who had confessed on their own, the Wisconsin Health Services Department said it "strongly encourages people to avoid vaping products and electronic cigarettes ". On August 23, the state's public health director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said, "We must make it known that the use of e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous." An editorial in the last issue of New England Journal of Medicine concludes that "efforts should be made to increase public awareness of the harmful effects of vaping and doctors to dissuade patients from vaping".

Deception began to infect the United Kingdom. An article published in the guardian Last week, Americans took advantage of the deaths, saying that "vaping safety has always been in doubt". He issued a direct warning: "Anyone who has avoided smoking tobacco cigarettes for health reasons has every reason to avoid e-cigarettes for the same reasons."

the TelegraphSarah Knapton, a science writer, believes that e-cigs are as harmful as tobacco smoke and have been fighting the crusade for a single woman for years. The events in America seem to have given him hope that Public Health England (PHE) could panic by giving up its evidence-based pro-vaping stance. On Monday, she quoted another fanatic, Martin McKee, who said, "What is amazing is that PHE simply ignores concerns, almost as if the British had lungs that function differently than those in the United States. . " that the American lungs must support a very different set of chemicals.

The CDC was the worst offender, using unfamiliar terms such as "use of e-cigarette products" and "e-cigarettes or e-cigarettes" to describe the behavior that led to the recent deaths. At a press conference, how an existing product for a decade could cause an acute epidemic, Brian King, of the CDC, suggested that the problem had existed from the beginning but that it was becoming noticeable only thanks to "increased diligence". He clearly blamed conventional electronic cigarettes by saying, "We know that e-cigarettes do not release harmless aerosols. They can include a variety of potentially harmful ingredients, including ingredients harmful to lung disease … we know that the electronic cigarette spray contains various components that could pose problem in terms of disease. "Again, this is not a complete lie, but far from the truth.

The FDA was slow to become aware of the true causes of the "mysterious lung disease linked to vaping", but eventually it did. On Friday, she issued a reasonable warning on her website urging Americans to "avoid buying vaping products on the street and not using THC oil." However, the CDC simply reiterated its advice that people should never vape.

The CDC plays a dangerous game. When a bad lot of drugs appears on the streets of Britain, the police do not issue a general warning against drug use. Instead, they describe what the bad lot looks like so that drug users can avoid it. Why? Tell people not to use drugs does not work. Tell people to avoid a particular bunch of green ecstasy pills does it. Similarly, the CDC's policy of telling people not to vape is not only an unwritten instruction to smokers to continue smoking, but also a less effective way of dealing with the wave of hospitalizations than tell people to stand out of the black market. THC cartridges.

For the ghosts of the American anti-vaping lobby, black market issues are an opportunity to suppress the legitimate market. The extremely popular Juul electronic cigarette was attacked despite the near-absolute impossibility of contaminating its capsules with the substances that caused the problem. The American Lung Association has asked the government to ban vapors inside and tax electronic cigarettes at the same rate as cigarettes. On Friday, Senator Dick Durbin asked FDA's new commissioner, Ned Sharples, to end the "vaping epidemic" or resign. "As acting FDA commissioner, you alone have the power to end this vaping epidemic that has now reached the point where children and young adults get sick and die," he said. . Mr. Durbin did not explain how a federal regulator was supposed to control what is happening on the black market.

It's a macabre disorder. While anti-vaping activists use ambulance lawsuits as a political tactic, lives are disappearing. They are disappearing here and now because young men are not aware of the dangers of illicit THC products. They will be in the future because smokers are actively discouraged to switch to a much safer alternative.

Christopher Snowdon is Director of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs. He is also co-host of Last orders, sharpNanny-state podcast.

Photo by: Getty.