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 The 32-year-old massage therapist has a diagnosis of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) from childhood trauma. To temper her
unpredictable panic attacks, she relied on a vape pen and cartridges
filled with the marijuana derivatives THC and CBD from state
dispensaries.
There are other ways to get the desired effect from marijuana, and
patients have filled dispensaries across the state in recent days to
ask about edible or smokeable forms. But Medeiros has come to depend
on her battery-powered pen, and wondered how she would cope without
her usual supply of cartridges.
"In the midst of something where I'm on the floor, on the verge of
passing out, my pen has been very helpful for me to grab," she said.
She carries her vape pen in her purse in case of an emergency, but
has only one cartridge left.
Massachusetts imposed its ban on all vaping products, including both
nicotine- and cannabis-based products, in response to mounting
concern about the potential serious health risks. Governor Charlie
Baker, a Republican, said the ban would last at least four months
while new legislation and regulation is explored.
More than 800 cases of a vaping-related lung disease and 12 deaths
across 10 U.S. states have so far been reported by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Those numbers are expected to
climb.
More than three quarters of those with the respiratory illness
reported vaping THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.
Many of them used small e-cigarette cartridges, or "carts," bought
on the black market, where the risk of adulterated products is high.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but a growing number of
states allow it for medical or recreational use. Massachusetts is
one of 10 U.S. states that allows both uses, along with the District
of Columbia.
Some marijuana users had long eschewed vaping even before the ban,
often on the advice of doctors who saw the cocktail of compounds
being inhaled into lungs as risky.
"I have advised against the vape carts for my patients for a long
time exactly out of suspicion of basically what just happened," said
Dr. Ryan Zaklin, a doctor in Salem, Massachusetts. "Who the hell
knows what they're putting in them?"
Some patients like vaping because it is more discreet than
traditional burning of marijuana "flower." The devices are small,
produce a relatively odorless "vapor" and is fast-acting: a handheld
device rapidly heats liquid compounds into an aerosol that can be
inhaled into the lungs.
Many of those patients are now asking their doctors or dispensaries
about edible forms of marijuana, liquid tinctures that can be
dropped under the tongue or old-fashioned flower buds and pre-rolled
joints for smoking.
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For Medeiros, who lives in the small coastal city of Peabody, other
methods are a poor substitute. She found that edibles take time to
take effect, typically about an hour. Tinctures seemed to her
similarly slow-acting. And rolling a joint while her vision is
closing in and she is hyperventilating from a panic attack is nearly
impossible, she said.
UNEXPECTED BLESSING
Medeiros wishes medical marijuana patients had been given time to
stock up on the products they use before the ban went into immediate
effect.
Pressed on such concerns, the governor has not been swayed to change
his decision over what he said was a public health emergency.
"There are many alternative uses available to people who currently
have prescriptions for medical marijuana and they should pursue
those," Baker told reporters last week, according to local media.
But some public health experts have warned the ban may drive more
people toward riskier black-market, totally unregulated vape
products.
At the New England Treatment Access (NETA) dispensary in Brookline,
near Boston, which has become one of the biggest suppliers of
medical marijuana since the drug became legalized in the state in
2012, several patients said they view the ban as an unexpected
blessing.
Denise Sullivan, 62, uses medical marijuana to treat symptoms of her
leukemia. She had vaped for more than a year, but stopped after she
heard about the ban. During the period she vaped, she contracted
pneumonia five times, she said, and now believes that might have
been vape related.
"I can tell when I vape I am more congested not in my lungs but in
my sinuses," she said. She plans to use edibles, which she said kick
in with enough time to treat her pain.
Kate LeDoux, 49, had a similar experience. She is a runner and used
medical marijuana to help recovery from recent foot surgery. LeDoux
stopped vaping a few weeks ago after seeing the news about the lung
disease, turning instead to edibles and smoking.
Almost immediately, her "weird cough" cleared up and her running
times improved, she said. "Now I know it was 100 percent the vaping."
(This story has been refiled to to correct date).
(Reporting Jacqueline Tempera in Brookline and Boston,
Massachusetts, and Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Frank
McGurty and Bill Berkrot)
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