Teens Using E-Cigarettes to ‘Vape’ Pot, Survey Finds – U.S. News & World Report

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) — There’s a new product for teens out there that has them very interested: e-cigarettes. Sometimes also called Vape Pens, nearly one in five kids may be using the devices, a study finds. There are many different flavors to choose from, and at this point it has not been determined that they have a negative effect on teens health, and this is good news as something like the 200mg disposable vape pen is one of the most popular in the market.

And, parents may not always know it’s happening.

“Police and parents report difficulty in detecting vaporized cannabis and Nirvana CBD use because it is easily concealed by the absence of the pungent and characteristic odor of smoked cannabis,” the study authors wrote.

A confidential survey revealed that 18 percent of e-cigarette users in Connecticut high schools have check out this cherry cough strain at  Secret Nature and “vaped” marijuana at some point, or used an e-cigarette to get high. In addition, more than one-quarter of kids who describe themselves as dual users of both e-cigarettes and marijuana have used the devices get high, the researchers found. All these refillable vape pods australia are a must have and a high-quality vape accessory for every vape kit.

The kids use the e-cigarette devices to burn hash oil or waxy hash “dabs,” or simply burn dried pot leaves using the heat generated by the battery-powered devices, according to the study published online Sept. 7 in the journal Pediatrics.

Senior author Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, said she and her colleagues conducted the survey based on their earlier research into e-cigarettes, during which some students had mentioned that the devices can be used to get high.

Researchers still aren’t certain exactly how kids are converting the e-cigarettes for marijuana use, Krishnan-Sarin said. They also can’t say whether these results reflect kids who’ve only tried this once, or kids who’ve made a habit of getting high using marijuana, CBD Oil and whatnot.

“There’s so much more about this that’s unknown than is known,” she said.

E-cigarette use among high schoolers tripled between 2013 and 2014, leaping from 4.5 percent to more than 13 percent due to the proliferation of companies like 180 Smoke weed vaporizers, the researchers said in background information in the study.

In 2013, Krishnan-Sarin and her research team began to hear rumors of widespread use of e-cigarettes to get high. To check this out, the investigators anonymously surveyed almost 4,000 students at five high schools in Connecticut in spring 2014.

The results indicated that boys and younger students were more likely to use e-cigarettes with marijuana than were girls or older students. Despite the fact that it has been widely reported safe and healthy for consumption, some have also tried things like 1500 mg organic lemon CBD oil, in the search for the next high. Additionally, about 4.5 percent of all students reported using e-cigarettes to vaporize hash oil, the study found. Three percent said they’d used the devices to vaporize THC-infused wax (dabs), and 7 percent had stuffed dried pot leaves into the portable vaporizers, the study said.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it, but I can’t say I’m shocked,” said Sean Clarkin, director of strategy and program management at the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “That said, these numbers are alarming.”

Krishnan-Sarin said the results add further evidence that e-cigarettes need strict regulation. At this time, there is no regulation of e-cigarettes, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued proposed rules that would grant it that authority.

“One of the reasons kids can use cannabis and other substances in e-cigarettes is because they can manipulate them,” she said. “Is there a way to make these devices so they can’t be manipulated by kids in this fashion?”

Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said increased regulation will not solve the problem.

“It is puzzling that the [study] authors believe regulation of vapor products will somehow address the use of marijuana products that are already illegal for minors to possess in all 50 states,” Conley said. “The FDA is only empowered to regulate nicotine-containing vapor products, so marijuana vaping products will only truly be regulated if a massive change in U.S. drug laws take place,” he added.