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More contaminant risks in our cannabis supply systems…
We've been following up on a) what's been learned about the cause of the VAPI epidemic, b) possible problems with liquid cartridge systems in general (for nicotine and cannabis vaping), and c) health risk factors related to nicotine.
And here we'll add another issue: the introduction of dangerous (and sometimes deadly) synthetic cannabinoids into the cannabis supply. These aren't limited to being in vaping fluids by any means, but can also show up in edibles, tinctures, and smokeable materials.
Smokeable Spice was openly and widely sold some years ago, and was outlawed everywhere, but synthetics have never really gone away, new ones keep appearing, and they keep infiltrating their way into the system as this in-depth investigation by Project CBD illustrates….
"Synthetics are typically much more potent than THC and bind with greater efficacy to the CB1 receptor, which mediates the impairing effects of THC. It is much easier to accidentally overdose on synthetic cannabinoids with severe, and even deadly consequences, whereas an overdose of THC, while unpleasant, has never killed anyone.
Sprayed on cannabis and other herbs or added to e-cig juice and vape oil, synthetics (with names like Spice and K2) are lucrative because they are cheap to produce and difficult to detect. Black market producers can increase their profits by diluting a poor-quality base oil and boosting the 'high.'
Numerous synthetic cannabinoids have been identified around the world. Since legal markets do not require testing for synthetic cannabinoids, they have turned up in both legal and illegal products, including THC and CBD vapes and nicotine e-cigarettes.
Regulators face a number of challenges that make synthetic cannabinoids hard to detect. 'It’s nearly impossible to detect hundreds of synthetics in a single test, and dozens of new one are designed every year. A chemical 100 times more powerful than THC has to be detected at very low concentrations, and most labs do not specialize in synthetic cannabinoid detection.”
Back to more positive topics tomorrow, promise.
The jury is out on the culprit(s) behind the recent outbreak of vaping related lung injury. In this special report, Project CBD’s Chief Science writer, Adrian Devitt-Lee, suggests that synthetic cannabinoids could be partially responsible.
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