Vape industry hijacked by THC

By Jill Ryan April 24, 2017

Nassau County is cracking down on the unlawful use of THC, a concentrated cannabis liquid, in vaping or e-cigarette products, but the legal vaping industry is getting caught in between.

“THC is destroying our industry,” Wilson Ni, the day manager of vape shop, Elite Vapez, said. “It is not something that vaping should be associated with, but that whole community hijacked vaping in order to do this.”

Ni said he believes that vaping is a way for cigarette smokers to kick their addiction. However, there have been no studies by the Food and Drug Administration that prove this claim. But there are testimonies from several ex-smokers claiming otherwise.

“I was a three-pack-a-day smoker and I quit almost immediately with vaping,” Sheldon Martinez, owner of Shelz Vapez, said. “I went from three packs to five cigarettes overnight. My next three packs took me two weeks to smoke. And then I quit within a couple more weeks completely.”

A customer of Elite Vapez also quit because of vaping.

“I was smoking two packs a day of Marlboro Red 100s,” Matthew Lehrer, of Glen Cove, said. “Two packs a day on average for about two and a half to three years before I started vaping and I was like ‘I’m going to get lung cancer soon or eventually, so I need to stop.’”

However, at a press conference, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said that vaping in general, not just THC, is a growing problem in the County. She said it is not a solution to tobacco smoking, but is actually marketed towards children.

“These devices are marketed to youth by adding fun flavors such as bubble gum, chocolate, vanilla, banana or strawberry.” Curran said. “In fact, the United States Surgeon General said the flavors in e-cigarettes are the leading reason for young people to start using them.”

A 2018 study, conducted by The American Academy of Pediatrics, agreed that the increase in use among adolescents was caused by “enticing flavors,” as well as “peer influence and extensive marketing.”

“Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are marketed to promote smoking cessation or reduced cigarette smoking in adults,” according to the study. “However, social influence and marketing strategies for these products have clearly had an effect on children as well, because more teenagers now use e-cigarettes than traditional cigarettes.”

Ni denied this, saying vaping is here to help smokers quit. He added that it is illegal to buy vaping products in Nassau if you are underage.

“We don’t encourage people underage to smoke or vape. You have to be 21,” Ni said.

Underage in his Hempstead shop is 21. In Nassau County, it’s 18.

“We ask for ID from people who look under 27,” Anthony Napolitano, owner of Square Vape Labs Inc., in Franklin Square, said. You also have to be 21 to buy from his shop.

Curran called attention to the amount of underage kids using vape products. She cited the 2016 United States Surgeon General’s report that does not differentiate between vaping legal liquid and THC.

“According to the Surgeon General’s report, during 2015 more than three million kids in middle and high school used e-cigarettes in the previous month,” Curran said.

It is illegal for vape shops to sell THC cartridges. Both Ni and Napolitano say they do not sell them.

”You can’t buy THC at a vape shop just like you can’t buy weed at 7/11,” Napolitano said.

Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein, who joined Curran at the press conference, reaffirmed her claim that vaping was marketed to children.

“With the delicious flavors, these are marketed towards children, high school students,” Eisenstein said. “Nicotine is very addictive. Nicotine is found in the liquids of vaping materials.”

But, not all vaping liquids have nicotine.

“What people also don’t realize is we make juices without nicotine in them as well,” Ni said. “So it’s literally just vegetable glycerin, menthol or nonmenthol, and whatever food or extra extracts we’re using to make it flavored.”

Dangers of vaping remain, Eisenstein said.

“The fact is there’s no quality control on the liquids being used in vaping devices,” Eisenstein said.

But there are, Ni said. On the back of most of the liquids, he said, there was an ingredients list and warnings such as “may contain nicotine.” But Eisenstein cited the Surgeon General’s report that chemicals in vaping have carcinogens in them that can cause cancer. The 2018 Pediatrics study agrees that there are carcinogens, but concluded that there is no data to support toxicant exposure. The study also stated that vaping is less harmful than cigarettes, which can be sold to those 19 and older in Nassau County.

“Although e-cigarette vapor may be less hazardous than tobacco smoke, our findings can be used to challenge the idea that e-cigarette vapor is safe,” according to the study, “because many of the volatile organic compounds we identified are carcinogenic. Messaging to teenagers should include warnings about the potential risk from toxic exposure to carcinogenic compounds generated by these products.”

THC cartridges are illegal and cannot be sold in vape shops, but, they can be sold at prescription marijuana dispensaries, Curran said.

“If you have a prescription for medical marijuana, which is legal in New York State, you have to get it from a very special kind of dispensary. It has to be from a certified dispensary,” Curran said.

However, illegal THC use arrests are on the rise in Nassau County, Patrick Ryder, Nassau County police commissioner, said.

“In 2016, we had 376 arrests for THC. In 2017, we had 990. That’s 163 percent increase,” Ryder said. “And this year, to date, we’re at 410 for arrests already and it’s only the first quarter of the year. We’re pushing toward enforcement and doing inspections on our vape shops to make sure that they are compliant.”

There are some vape shops that do get “busted” for participating in illegal activity, Ni said.

“Police officers come in constantly and they actually surveill all the other vape shops down around here, too. There’s actually two vape shops down there that get busted pretty much every other month for doing illegal shit. [like THC],” Ni said.

Ryder goes on to warn parents, without citing a study, that vaping is a slippery slope to opioids.

“This is a gateway drug that will bring your child to the use of opioids or heroin,” Ryder said. “We’ve seen the increase in usage of vaping pipes of THC, we’ve also seen the increase in our overdoses for heroin. A kid [doesn’t] wake up one morning and decide to use heroin. Something brings them there. THC is very very pure, it’s not the marijuana from the 70s.”

THC being distributed illegally is dangerous, Curran said, because you don’t know what you’re getting.

“It could be THC, it could be something else. You don’t know what you’re putting into your lungs,” Curran said.

Ryder urges parents to watch out for their kids. A search warrant recently executed in Bellmore unveiled $3,000 in street value THC liquid.

“They were injecting [THC] into gummy bears,” Ryder said, “so not only are they putting it into a vape pipe, they are also putting this into a gummy bear that a kid could chew while he’s in class, getting stoned right in front of his math teacher.”

Ryder then offered all parents in Nassau County an opportunity to anonymously test their kids’ vapes for THC, while vape shops and owners hope to ride out the bad reputation as a result of THC use.

“Every vape shop is going to be associated with [THC] and then people aren’t going to want to come in here because they’re going to think that we condone marijuana usage,” Ni said, “and that’s just not what we’re about.”