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Bogus Vape Cartridges Linked to Outbreak of Pulmonary Problems, Hospitalizations

hellfire

Well-known member
Veteran
I remember when this trend first started my personal thoughts went immediately to weird metal oxides and residuals in the coils that could be inhaled via the vaping temperatures.
 
I can definitely see that also contributing to the problem.

The cuts and chemicals are a major problem though and I think the major cause.

Doctors can’t really pinpoint any exact cause because it’s likely a combination of different contaminants. Some doctors have said that the lungs looked similar to ones that had chemical burns.

Best advise is grow your own if possible or if you have to buy from a store or illegally then try to get flowers.
 

ronbo51

Member
Veteran
It's not the fucking hardware. Nowhere on earth are the "vaping" illnesses occurring, despite much higher ecig usage rates in asia and the EU, except here in the Us. All the hardware is made by the same folks so the illness would be worldwide, which it is not. Therefore its not the fucking solder.

It IS all the shit that the stoners and shysters and crooks have put in their carts. Thats just the facts. Whether the offending products are fungicides, pesticides, or all the shit that is used to cut, thicken, flavor and adulterate THC is up to others to determine, but keep it fucking real.
 

Ringodoggie

Well-known member
It's not the fucking hardware. Nowhere on earth are the "vaping" illnesses occurring, despite much higher ecig usage rates in asia and the EU, except here in the Us. All the hardware is made by the same folks so the illness would be worldwide, which it is not. Therefore its not the fucking solder.

It IS all the shit that the stoners and shysters and crooks have put in their carts. That's just the facts. Whether the offending products are fungicides, pesticides, or all the shit that is used to cut, thicken, flavor and adulterate THC is up to others to determine, but keep it fucking real.

Thank you.

People are so programmed by the news to blame China for everything. This problem is caused by plain old American greed.






.
 

prune

Active member
Veteran
It's not the fucking hardware. Nowhere on earth are the "vaping" illnesses occurring, despite much higher ecig usage rates in asia and the EU, except here in the Us. All the hardware is made by the same folks so the illness would be worldwide, which it is not. Therefore its not the fucking solder.

Lol, what a transparent piece of shit you are just emanates from every post you make... Stupidity, Greed and Avarice. Serial poisoner.
You and your spew are not welcome in society, fade away, troubled soul, fade away...
 

GGNo2

Member
Lol, what a transparent piece of shit you are just emanates from every post you make... Stupidity, Greed and Avarice. Serial poisoner.
You and your spew are not welcome in society, fade away, troubled soul, fade away...

It can't be the solder because as he stated, this is only happening in the USA. We use the same hardware made in the same factories in China here in Europe and nobody is getting ill here.

I get the impression you're just a troll getting a kick out of winding the other guy up, that ain't cool. Infact its kind of shitty.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
You're not keeping up, that is so last week... Latest info is that there was NO lipoid pnenmonia, that was a misinterpretation of the tissue samples.

The latest best interpretation is metal fume disease caused by the cheap solder used to make the electrical connections within the cartridge. Cadmium seems to be the culprit, and it CAN cause the syndrome with a single bad cartridge, so it is a real and true "Russian roulette" situation with vape pens right now.
Any citation for this "best interpretation"? Besides a blog post I mean? Or somebody linking to that exact blog post? Cause if it was the solder in the vapes, everybody would be getting affected, not just the US. And if you read the comment section the writer even says To clear up some confusion: We don't think the problem is the cart itself or the initial liquid in the cart. We believe the vapor is becoming contaminated between the cart and the user. That reads as cutting/thickening/additive agents to me. Unless they mean the fraction of a second your vapor is inside the vape is enough time to release cadmium to cause sickness? In which case, why is it only affecting people in the US, etc. I still don't think we are only seeing one thing. I think something that shouldn't be there is causing the short term issues, that in turn is making people look more closely at the long term issues.
 

DemonTrich

Active member
Veteran
Hmm that's funny. I just read a post where a china mfg of ceramic carts has been painting the center posts white to look like ceramic. They are painted, the paint is wearing off, mixing with the extract and ppl are vaping it.

But it's not the hardware.

Lmfao!


The mayo clinic is still up in the air over vite E, hardware, or even the batteries themselves can be the issues here
 

Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Hmm that's funny. I just read a post where a china mfg of ceramic carts has been painting the center posts white to look like ceramic. They are painted, the paint is wearing off, mixing with the extract and ppl are vaping it.


Is that a valid statement? I would like to see some real evidence on that claim. Do you have a link?
 

DemonTrich

Active member
Veteran
Yes 100% valid

I wont link up other forums on here. If you are on that forum, it's been discussed over the past 5 months with daily updates.
 

Lyfespan

Active member
Hmm that's funny. I just read a post where a china mfg of ceramic carts has been painting the center posts white to look like ceramic. They are painted, the paint is wearing off, mixing with the extract and ppl are vaping it.

But it's not the hardware.

Lmfao!


The mayo clinic is still up in the air over vite E, hardware, or even the batteries themselves can be the issues here

this is just like the chinese milk and drywall issues. melamine in milk because they water it down so much they need to whiten it for sale:tiphat:


so heres a question, now that the cart game is taking this big hit, whats the new game? edibles are only going so far, just like flowers.

whats the next marketing strategy?
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
this is just like the chinese milk and drywall issues. melamine in milk because they water it down so much they need to whiten it for sale:tiphat:


so heres a question, now that the cart game is taking this big hit, whats the new game? edibles are only going so far, just like flowers.

whats the next marketing strategy?
Injectable Marijuanas.
 

Headbandf1

Bent Member
Veteran
this is just like the chinese milk and drywall issues. melamine in milk because they water it down so much they need to whiten it for sale:tiphat:


so heres a question, now that the cart game is taking this big hit, whats the new game? edibles are only going so far, just like flowers.

whats the next marketing strategy?




Non solvent extracts....WPFF Rosin. Low heat below 90 degrees and Pressure 100 ton press...


Nothing added
 

dddaver

Active member
Veteran
There are plenty of us old school heads,as well as many young whipper-snappers :biggrin:, that grow organic and smoke, vape, or eat weed and just scratch our heads and think WTF? Why, after millennia and so many successful and proven ways of imbibing, is anyone even thinking of risking their health? For what gain or purpose? We see weed as one of those rare things that are truly gifts from God and instead of respecting and enjoying that and making the most of it, there is a rather large and vocal segment of the population that instead abuses and actually seeks potential harm. It is truly beyond me....Money? Is that it?...Weak sauce if that's it. Totally not worth it.
 

Ringodoggie

Well-known member

Headbandf1

Bent Member
Veteran
Vape pioneer peddled street drugs that sickened dozens

Vape pioneer peddled street drugs that sickened dozens

https://www.sfgate.com/news/medical...aced-to-California-woman-who-was-14549264.php






CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) — Some of the people rushing to emergency rooms thought the CBD vape they inhaled would help like a gentle medicine. Others puffed it for fun.
What the vapors delivered instead was a jolt of synthetic marijuana, and with it an intense high of hallucinations and even seizures.
More than 50 people around Salt Lake City had been poisoned by the time the outbreak ended early last year, most by a vape called Yolo! — the acronym for "you only live once."
In recent months, hundreds of vape users have developed mysterious lung illnesses, and more than 30 have died. Yolo was different. Users knew immediately something was wrong.
Who was responsible for Yolo? Public health officials and criminal investigators couldn't figure that out. Just as it seemed to appear from nowhere, Yolo faded away with little trace.
As part of an investigation into the illegal spiking of CBD vapes that are not supposed to have any psychoactive effect at all, The Associated Press sought to understand the story behind Yolo.
The trail led to a Southern California beach town and an entrepreneur whose vaping habit prompted a career change that took her from Hollywood parties to federal court in Manhattan.

When Janell Thompson moved from Utah to the San Diego area in 2010, the roommate she found online also vaped. Thompson had a background in financial services and the two decided to turn their shared interest into a business, founding an e-cigarette company called Hookahzz.

There were early successes. Thompson and her partner handed out Hookahzz products at an Emmy Awards pre-party, and their CBD vapes were included in Oscar nominee gift bags in 2014. In a video shot at a trade show, an industry insider described the two women as "the divas of CBD."
Indeed, Hookahzz was among the first companies to sell vapes that delivered CBD, as the cannabis extract cannabidiol is known. Now a popular ingredient in products from skin creams to gummy bears, cannabidiol was at that time little known and illegal in some states.
The partners started other brands that offered CBD capsules and edibles, as well as products for pets. Part of Thompson's pitch was that CBD helped treat her dog's tumors.
By autumn 2017, Thompson and her partner formed another company, Mathco Health Corporation. Within a few months, Yolo spiked with synthetic marijuana — commonly known as K2 or spice — began appearing on store shelves around Salt Lake City.
Synthetic marijuana is manmade and can be manufactured for a fraction of the price of CBD, which is typically extracted from industrial hemp that must be farmed.
Samples tested at Utah labs showed Yolo contained a synthetic marijuana blamed for at least 11 deaths in Europe — and no CBD at all.
Authorities believed that some people sought out Yolo because they wanted to get high, while others unwittingly ingested a dangerous drug. What authorities didn't understand was its source.
Investigators with Utah's State Bureau of Investigation visited vape stores that sold Yolo, but nobody would talk. The packaging provided no contact information.
By May 2018, the case was cold. But it was not dead.
That summer, a former Mathco bookkeeper who was preparing to file a workplace retaliation complaint began collecting evidence of what she viewed as bad business practices.
During her research, Tatianna Gustafson saw online pictures showing that Yolo was the main culprit in the Utah poisonings, according to the complaint she filed against Mathco with California's Department of Industrial Relations.
Gustafson wrote that while at Mathco she was concerned about how Yolo was produced, that it was excluded from Mathco's promotional material and that the "labels had no ingredients or contact listing."
Justin Davis, another former Mathco employee, told AP that "the profit margins were larger" for Yolo than other products.



Gustafson's complaint asserted that Mathco or JK Wholesale, another of the companies that Thompson and her partner incorporated, mixed and distributed Yolo. Financial records in the complaint show Thompson's initials as the main salesperson for Yolo transactions, including with a company in Utah. The records also show Yolo was sold in at least six other states, including to an address in South Carolina where a college student said he vaped a cartridge that sent him into a coma.
The former bookkeeper also tipped the Utah Poison Control Center about who she believed was behind Yolo, according to her complaint.
Barbara Crouch, the poison center's executive director, recalled getting a tip in late 2018 and passing it along to the State Bureau of Investigation. SBI agent Christopher Elsholz talked to the tipster, who told him she believed the company she had worked for distributed Yolo. Elsholz said the company was in California and therefore out of his jurisdiction, so he passed the tip to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The DEA offered to help but took no law enforcement action, spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger said. Spiked CBD is a low priority for an agency dealing with bigger problems such as the opioid epidemic, which has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the end, it wasn't the synthetic marijuana compound in Yolo from Utah that caught up with Thompson. It was another kind of synthetic added to different brands.
By the time of the Utah poisonings, vapes labeled as Black Magic and Black Diamond had sickened more than 40 people in North Carolina, including high school students and military service members. Investigators were able to connect Thompson to that outbreak in part based on a guilty plea from the distributor of the spiked vapes, who said a woman that authorities identified as Thompson supplied the liquid that went into them.
Prosecutors also linked her to dealers charged in New York, where she pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to distribute synthetic marijuana and a money laundering charge. The only brand federal prosecutors cited was Yolo.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman called Thompson a "drug trafficker" who used JK Wholesale to distribute "massive quantities" of synthetic marijuana as far back as 2014. She faces up to 40 years in prison.
Reached by phone the week before she pleaded guilty, Thompson declined to discuss Yolo and then hung up. In a subsequent text message, Thompson said not to call her and referred questions to her lawyer, who did not respond to requests for comment.
While Yolo was Thompson's project and she was the exclusive salesperson, her business partner and former roommate was involved in its production, according to the workplace retaliation complaint.
Thompson's business partner and former roommate, Katarina Maloney, distanced herself from Thompson and Yolo during an August interview at Mathco's headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Maloney has not been charged in the federal investigation.
"To tell you the truth, that was my business partner," Maloney said of Yolo. She said Thompson was no longer her partner and she didn't want to discuss it.
In a follow-up email, Maloney asserted the Yolo in Utah "was not purchased from us," without elaborating.
"Mathco Health Corporation or any of its subsidiary companies do not engage in the manufacture or sale of illegal products," she wrote. "When products leave our facility, they are 100% compliant with all laws."
Maloney also said all products are lab tested. She did not respond to requests for Yolo lab results.
 
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