Joshua Rhett Miller September 27, 2019 New York Post Bootleg marijuana vaping cartridges sold on the black market have been found to contain hydrogen cyanide, according to a report. A cannabis testing facility in California analyzed a sampling of 18 cartridges containing THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — from both legal dispensaries and unlicensed dealers, NBC News reports. No heavy metals, pesticides or solvents such as vitamin E were found in the legal products. But all 10 of the black market cartridges tested positive for pesticides and myclobutanil, a fungicide that can transform into hydrogen cyanide when burned, the analysis found. “You certainly don’t want to be smoking cyanide,” the vice president of operations at CannaSafe, Antonio Frazier, told NBC News. “I don’t think anyone would buy a cart that was labeled hydrogen cyanide on it.” Dr. Melodi Pirzada, a pediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital on Long…

CW Headley Sep 27, 2019 Ladders Juul Labs has agreed to cease all advertising of their products while state and federal regulators conduct an investigation behind the illness cases. In a lot of ways, the downfall of electronic cigarettes mirrors that of famous pseudo-pop duo Milli Vanilli. Initially, pitched to kids as less dangerous versions of a cool thing we all love, they then became this comical thing you were embarrassed to be associated with when you weren’t drunk and or dancing. And now we’re finding out they’re actually a worse synthetic knock off of the cooler thing that will give you cancer, adversely impact fertility and share an underwhelming association with Arsenio Hall.  In the middle of a looming health crisis, complete with hospitalizations and a potential government ban, Juul CEO, Kevin Burns has officially stepped down, handing the mop to an executive from Atlanta by the name of…

Craig Giammona and Kristine OwramSeptember 26, 2019 The vaping health crisis sweeping the U.S. is highlighting how little scientists and health officials know about the marijuana being consumed on a daily basis by millions of Americans. That lack of research, which stems from a longstanding federal prohibition on marijuana, is becoming a problem for the $10 billion legal weed industry, where vaping products have been the fastest-growing area. Even as marijuana rules have loosened in more than 30 states, there’s little information available on the new products that are appearing in stores across states like Colorado and California. Researchers are restricted from walking into a marijuana store in Denver or Los Angeles and buying products for testing because their funding could be jeopardized if they run afoul of federal regulations. See Also: Philip Morris’s By-the-Books E-Cig Approval Slog Now Looks Smart “It’s an absurd situation,” said Matthew Johnson, an addiction…

This essay was originally published on Pepperdine University Graphic.  Mary Margaret Davis NBC NEW At first, the doctors said it was pneumonia. On the way back from the hospital two days before her death, my mother groaned between coughs, “I’m never smoking again; I’m throwing out all of my e-cigarettes and weed pens.” This was a groundbreaking statement from my mother, who, like many, had embraced vaping as an alternative to smoking with swift, open arms. Despite recent protests from loved ones, she was adamant for years that it was far healthier than her cigarette habit. Having always believed marijuana was not a dangerous drug to consume, Mom began to vape THC products in late 2018 — not long after California legalized the drug for recreational use. If I knew my mother, she would try to move mountains before she would declare she was quitting either drug. It’s easy to…

David Marin-GuzmanSep 26, 2019 AFR Share United Petroleum has been accused of frustrating an investigation into whether the petrol giant is liable for underpayments in its franchise network by refusing to hand over records. The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched legal action against the franchisor in the Federal Court, alleging it breached the Fair Work Act by failing to provide any records or documents demanded in a notice to produce delivered to a senior executive. According to court documents, the FWO personally served chief operating officer David Szymczak the notice in November last year in relation to underpayments at a Brisbane franchisee in Cooper Plains. The regulator had found the outlet, run by Parashar’s Pty Ltd from mid-2017, was breaching workplace laws and award requirements until its agreement with United Petroleum was terminated in June last year. The notice said the FWO was now investigating whether United Petroleum knew, or…

Sue MitchellSep 26, 2019 AFR Grocery wholesaler Metcash is under growing pressure to reduce prices to stop independent retailers from defecting to other suppliers as competition steps up in the $110 billion food and grocery market. As reported in The Australian Financial Review on Thursday, one of Metcash’s largest customers, Drakes Supermarkets, plans to go into competition with Metcash by supplying other independent supermarkets once it has bedded down a $125 million state-of-the-art automated distribution centre due to open next week in Adelaide. Drakes owner Roger Drake also indicated he would be prepared to break a supply agreement with Metcash in Queensland and shift to self-supply if he could source stock more cheaply. The chief executive of Ritchies, Australia’s largest independent grocery retailer, Fred Harrison, said he would honour his long term supply agreement with Metcash but said independent retailers needed cheaper supplies to compete against Woolworths, Coles and Aldi. “Theres’ no doubt independents…