Small-Town Drug Bust Offers Intimate Glimpse Into The Vast And Shadowy Black Market For Vaping Supplies

The New York Times: Vaping Bad: Were 2 Wisconsin Brothers The Walter Whites Of THC Oils?
The drug bust shattered the early-morning stillness of this manicured subdivision in southeastern Wisconsin. The police pulled up outside a white-shuttered brick condo, jolting neighbors out of their beds with the thud of heavy banging on a door. What they found inside was not crystal meth or cocaine or fentanyl but slim boxes of vaping cartridges labeled with flavors like strawberry and peaches and cream. An additional 98,000 cartridges lay empty. Fifty-seven Mason jars nearby contained a substance that resembled dark honey: THC-laced liquid used for vaping, a practice that is now at the heart of a major public health scare sweeping the country. (Bosman and Richtel, 9/15)

The Associated Press: Vapes Spiked With Illegal Drugs Show Dark Side Of CBD Craze
Jay Jenkins says he hesitated when a buddy suggested they vape CBD. "It'll relax you," the friend assured. The vapor that Jenkins inhaled didn't relax him. After two puffs, he ended up in a coma. That's because what he was vaping didn't have any CBD, the suddenly popular compound extracted from the cannabis plant that marketers say can treat a range of ailments without getting users high. Instead, the oil was spiked with a powerful street drug. (9/16)

The Associated Press: AP Investigation Finds Spiked CBD Being Sold In Maryland
An Associated Press investigation shows a dark side to booming sales of the cannabis extract CBD. Some people are substituting cheap and dangerous street drugs for the real thing. For the investigation, a reporter in Towson purchased three vape pods that were advertised as delivering inhalable CBD. Lab testing showed one contained synthetic marijuana. The store’s co-owner then pulled the brand from shelves. (9/16)

The Hill: Trump Defends Push To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes: Let's 'Keep Young Children From Vaping!'
President Trump defended his push to ban flavored e-cigarettes, saying the products could be harmful to children despite them being an alternative for some to smoking. “While I like the Vaping alternative to Cigarettes, we need to make sure this alternative is SAFE for ALL! Let’s get counterfeits off the market, and keep young children from Vaping!” he tweeted Friday evening. (Axelrod, 9/13)

The Hill: Trump Move On Flavored E-Cigarettes May Hit Adults Trying To Quit
The Trump administration argues flavors such as cherry and mint are fueling a youth vaping "epidemic" and must be removed from the market. But experts say flavored vapes have also helped some adults wean themselves off of cigarettes, one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. (Hellmann, 9/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: What New Federal Action On E-Cigarettes Means For Juul
A federal regulation banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, which could come in a few weeks, would force Juul to stop selling mint and menthol flavor nicotine cartridges or “pods” in the United States — on top of the other flavors, like mango and creme, which Juul stopped selling at retail stores in November. Flavored pods represent an estimated 80% of Juul’s U.S. sales, and a federal prohibition could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars. (Ho, 9/14)

Reuters: Explainer: One Possible Culprit In Vaping Lung Illnesses-'Dank Vapes'
As U.S health officials scramble to identify the root cause of hundreds of severe lung illnesses tied to vaping, one possible culprit identified so far is a line of illicit marijuana vape products sold under the brand names "Dank Vapes" and "Chronic Carts." A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that more than half of patients with the lung illness - 24 of 41 - who were extensively interviewed in Wisconsin and Illinois reported having used the "Dank Vapes" brand. (9/13)

Politico: State Lawmakers See Momentum For Vaping Crackdown After Trump Ban
From Utah to New Jersey, long-stalled state plans to curb teen vaping got a huge boost from President Donald Trump’s plan to remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market. And some states want to go further than the White House. State lawmakers believe the surprise ban Trump announced this week, amid an outbreak of a mysterious vaping-related illness that’s sickened hundreds and killed at least six, provides much-needed momentum to legislation cracking down on the young but rapidly growing e-cigarette industry. (Goldberg, 9/15)

Reuters: New York To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes After Illnesses, Deaths
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes besides tobacco and menthol in response to a recent nationwide spate of sometimes deadly lung illnesses that U.S. health officials have linked to vaping. Cuomo said vaping was dangerous and that he was concerned fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes were leading young people to get hooked on nicotine. (9/15)

The New York Times: New York Moves To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes By Emergency Order
The governor’s action comes days after President Trump announced an effort to ban similar vaping products at the federal level. If New York does outlaw flavored e-cigarettes, it would become the second state to move toward such a ban, following Michigan, which announced earlier this month that it would prohibit such products. Speaking from his office in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Cuomo described a growing health crisis, likening it to illnesses related to traditional tobacco products. (McKinley and Goldbaum, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: In New York, Gov. Cuomo Moves To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes
The ban would affect traditional retail stores and New York-based companies selling the product, but it doesn’t address all online sales. Banning all online sales with regulatory action by a state agency is legally complicated and would require legislation, a spokesman for the governor said. The governor intends to pursue permanent legislation that would ban all sales of flavored e-cigarettes, but federal action would also be necessary to be effective, the spokesman said. (Morris, 9/15)

The Associated Press: Illinois Lawsuit Filed Against Top E-Cigarette Maker
An Illinois teenager who fell ill with a lung disease after vaping for over a year sued a leading e-cigarette maker on Friday, accusing it of deliberately marketing to young people and sending the message that vaping is cool. Attorneys filed a lawsuit in Lake County Circuit Court on behalf of 18-year-old Adam Hergenreder, who was hospitalized at the end of August for about a week after complaining of nausea and labored breathing. (9/13)

KQED: San Jose Looks To Join Bay Area Cities In Banning E-Cigs, Flavored Tobacco
A San Jose official is pushing for a local ban on some vaping and flavored tobacco products. The recommendations from San Jose city councilmember Magdalena Carrasco come shortly after the Trump administration and the Federal Drug Administration announced plans for an upcoming policy that would enable the removal of many flavored non-tobacco e-cigarettes from the market. (Mostafa, 9/14)

CNN: Vaping: 10 College Students On Their Addictions
The CDC, FDA, White House and a who's who of officials in suits want young people to stop using e-cigarettes amid a mysterious outbreak of hundreds of vaping-related lung illnesses. But what do actual vapers think? (Levenson, 9/15)

Stat: Five Big Questions About The Outbreak Of Vaping-Related Illnesses
Health officials across the country are still hunting for a cause, running tests on samples from products patients used and scouring for common threads between cases. Here are five key questions about the outbreak. (Theilking and Branswell, 9/16)