California finds illegal cannabis vapes tainted with additives

Marijuana vape cartridges seized in unlicensed stores in Los Angeles contained potentially dangerous additives, including a thickening agent blamed for a national outbreak of deadly lung illnesses tied to vaping, California officials said Monday.

Officials also found that the illegal vapes confiscated in the December raids typically were not as potent as advertised and sometimes contained just a fraction of the THC claimed on the labels, according to state testing results.

“The prevalence of dirty and dangerous vape pens at unlicensed cannabis stores demonstrate how important it is for consumers to purchase cannabis goods from licensed retailers, which are required to sell products that meet state testing and labeling standards,” said Lori Ajax, who heads California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control.

The state conducted tests on the marijuana oil contained in a random sample of more than 10,000 illegal vape pens seized in the Los Angeles raids.

The tests found that 75% of the vapes contained undisclosed additives, including the thickening agent vitamin E acetate, which has been blamed by federal regulators for the majority of lung illnesses tied to the outbreak.

In some samples, oil in the cartridges was diluted by more than one-third by potentially dangerous and undisclosed additives.

– Associated Press

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