Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Banned in Boston: Without Vaping, Medical Marijuana Patients Must Adapt

Reuters

   BOSTON - In the first few days of the four-month ban on all vaping
   products in Massachusetts, Laura Lee Medeiros, a medical marijuana
   patient, began to worry.

   The 32-year-old massage therapist has a diagnosis of post-traumatic
   stress disorder (PTSD) from childhood trauma. To temper her
   unpredictable panic attacks, she relied on a vape pen and cartridges
   filled with the marijuana derivatives THC and CBD from state
   dispensaries.

   There are other ways to get the desired effect from marijuana, and
   patients have filled dispensaries across the state in recent days to
   ask about edible or smokeable forms. But Medeiros has come to depend on
   her battery-powered pen, and wondered how she would cope without her
   usual supply of cartridges.

   "In the midst of something where I'm on the floor, on the verge of
   passing out, my pen has been very helpful for me to grab," she said.
   She carries her vape pen in her purse in case of an emergency, but has
   only one cartridge left.

   Massachusetts imposed its ban on all vaping products, including both
   nicotine- and cannabis-based products, in response to mounting concern
   about the potential serious health risks. Governor Charlie Baker, a
   Republican, said the ban would last at least four months while new
   legislation and regulation is explored.

   More than 800 cases of a vaping-related lung disease and 12 deaths
   across 10 U.S. states have so far been reported by the U.S. Centers for
   Disease Control and Prevention. Those numbers are expected to climb.

   More than three quarters of those with the respiratory illness reported
   vaping THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. Many of them
   used small e-cigarette cartridges, or "carts," bought on the black
   market, where the risk of adulterated products is high.

   Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but a growing number of
   states allow it for medical or recreational use.

   Massachusetts is one of 10 U.S. states that allows both uses, along
   with the District of Columbia.

   Some marijuana users had long eschewed vaping even before the ban,
   often on the advice of doctors who saw the cocktail of compounds being
   inhaled into lungs as risky.

   "I have advised against the vape carts for my patients for a long time
   exactly out of suspicion of basically what just happened," said Dr.
   Ryan Zaklin, a doctor in Salem, Massachusetts. "Who the hell knows what
   they're putting in them?"

   Some patients like vaping because it is more discreet than traditional
   burning of marijuana "flower." The devices are small, produce a
   relatively odorless "vapor" and is fast-acting: a handheld device
   rapidly heats liquid compounds into an aerosol that can be inhaled into
   the lungs.

.