Washington Places Emergency Ban On Flavored Vape Additives
It’s official, the board members of Washington’s Department of Health have put an emergency ban on all flavored vape cartridges until January 2020. WAC 246-80-010 is decreeing that all vape cartridges with non-cannabis-derived flavorings be taken off the shelves immediately. Any and all nicotine vapes are also being taken away if they have any flavor other than pure tobacco. This aligns with Washington’s recent decision to raise the legal age for using vape products to 21 by the new year.
Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee let loose an executive order back on September 27th demanding the emergency ban. The state’s reaction seems to be fueled by the ongoing vape cartridge illnesses that number over a thousand now, with 18 deaths. As a result, there is now a nationwide investigation taking place for all vape products. All of the commotions surround the addition of harmful ingredients into both THC and nicotine vapes. Vitamin E oil, as well as other additives such as propylene glycol, or polyethylene glycol that can release harmful carcinogens when heated. Coconut oil has even been found in some cartridges as a thinning agent.
Cartridges That Only Use Cannabis-Derived Terpenes Are Still Legal
The fine-print of the new WAC chapter makes a firm definition of what is a “characterizing flavor” that is now banned across the state. Whether it’s in a THC or nicotine vape, the “distinguishable taste or aroma, or both, other than the taste or aroma of tobacco or marijuana or a taste or aroma derived from terpenes or terpenoids derived directly and solely from marijuana or hemp plants that have been grown and tested as required by state law, imparted by a vapor product.”
The Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Washington State Department of Health, and many other state and local health departments are in search for a solution. The Department of Health has gone on record as stating that the emergency ban is “necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, and general welfare by reducing youth exposure to vaping-related severe lung disease.” This sudden imposition of regulation and product banning is going to hurt a lot of small cannabis brands in Washington. Many will go out of business trying to afford either completely compliant product, or the rounds of lab testing required to prove compliance. Not every ma and pa brand in the i-502 market can afford to supply enough biomass to use cannabis-derived terpenes as their sole flavor.
Legal Purchasing Limits for Cannabis Products
Adults 21 and over can purchase up to one ounce of usable cannabis flower, 16 ounces of cannabis-infused edibles in solid form, 72 ounces of cannabis drinkables, and 7 grams of cannabis concentrates.
Three ounces of usable cannabis flower, forty-eight ounces of cannabis-infused edibles in solid form, two hundred sixteen ounces of cannabis drinkables, and twenty-one grams of cannabis concentrates, per the Washington State Department of Health.
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