Massachusetts Health Officials Confirm Vaping Illnesses Tied to “Legal” Market Following SAM FOIA

Following the submission of a Massachusetts Public Records Law request by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), Massachusetts health officials confirmed that six patients in the state suffering from the vaping illness now referred to as EVALI reported using products from regulated “legal” dispensaries in the state. This follows initial reporting by The Boston Globe that health officials were refusing to “say how many cases are linked to regulated cannabis vaping products as opposed to unregulated ones sold on the illicit market.”

“As SAM has pointed out from the beginning, the blame for this epidemic does not fall solely on the underground marijuana market,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of SAM and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “We are working daily to expose the harms of marijuana legalization and using FOIA and other public records requests to shine light where the industry would prefer dark. We call on health agencies across the nation to not only highlight cases from ‘legal’ sources, but also to name the stores and suppliers of said products. It is in the interest of public health and safety that this information is made public.”

Massachusetts now joins Oregon, Delaware, Washington, Maryland, Colorado, Utah, and Michigan in having deaths and cases of EVALI linked to the use of “legal” marijuana vaping products. This fact is why the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has urged Americans to avoid any marijuana vaping product. No one can verify that any “legal” marijuana vaping product is safe for human consumption.