A recent study reveals that teens are nearly twice as likely to report “wheezing or whistling” in the chest after vaping marijuana than after smoking cigarettes or e-cigarettes. While we know that cigarettes and e-cigarettes are unhealthy and damaging to the lungs, it appears that vaping marijuana has even worse health implications.
Study author Carol Boyd, co-director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking & Health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was surprised by these results. “We thought we would find more negative respiratory symptoms in both cigarette and e-cigarette users,” she explains. “I recommend parents treat all vaping as risky behavior (just like alcohol or drug use).”
Vaping marijuana is also associated with a newly-identified lung disease called EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury. This dangerous illness was first identified in August 2019 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after seemingly-healthy young people from around the country were hospitalized for severe and even fatal lung infections.
A link between the condition and vaping was soon discovered with blame being placed on the use of vitamin E acetate. This sticky oil substance, which is added to thicken or dilute the oil in cartridges, is most often used in vaping products with THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana. “According to the CDC, 84 percent of the EVALI cases were associated with cannabis-containing products,” Boyd says.
Tracy Everhart
Tracy Everhart is the Editor for Drug Law Journal. A highly-trained and certified medical professional, Tracy is also an accomplished medical writer. After spending years on the front lines of the medical profession, Tracy now devotes her expertise and skills to researching and reporting on new drugs and devices that enter the market, as well as their side-effects and the real-life stories involved. Prior to joining Drug Law Journal, Tracy wrote for benchmark online healthcare resources focused on families and, in particular, women’s health issues. Tracy holds post-graduate degrees from both the American College of Healthcare Sciences and the Yale School of Nursing. She is also a graduate of both Hampshire College, where she studied microbiology and the University of South Carolina school of nursing.