Vaping weed puts lung health at risk

Cannabis plants are put on display at a herbal expo in Nonthaburi province early this month. (Photo: Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)
Cannabis plants are put on display at a herbal expo within Nonthaburi province earlier this month. (Photo: Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)

Doctors have warned against the recreational use of e-cigarettes which contain cannabis as they damages the lungs and worsen people’s respiratory conditions.

Dr Thira Woratanarat, associate professor of the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, posted on his Facebook page on Thurs about the danger associated with vaping cannabis essential oil, saying it may cause acute respiratory failure.

Within 2019-2020, many teenagers in the United States were found to have suffered severe pneumonia from using this kind of devices with the vegetable extract inside.

Citing information provided by the US Centers for Disease Manage and Prevention, up to 2020 some 2, 807 people are authorized as having created such symptoms.

Research indicated a potential link between vitamin E acetate, utilized as an additive in certain vaping products, plus certain vape fluids that contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis, Doctor Thira said.

Although the leisure use of cannabis will be illegal in the US for people under 21, it has become more accessible as many states have lately legalised it. Yet experts say present high-THC cannabis products — vastly not the same as the joints smoked in previous many years and decades — are poisoning some heavy users, including teenagers.

Cannabis is not a dangerous narcotic like fentanyl but it can have harmful effects — especially for young people whose minds are still developing.

Nowadays, many Thais prefer vaping cannabis as it is electric and odourless with easy access online, where the devices retail for approximately 3, 000 baht. They initially became popular among high-society teenagers, businessmen and some condition officials.

According to one business operator in the Northern, these products must be ordered from overseas. You can find two types — single-use and standard rechargeable versions that simply need the oil to be replenished.

The Rural Physician Society has also expressed concern about food items like cannabis-based poultry drumsticks.

“Children may start away from with cannabis-based snack foods, but that would most likely tempt them to consider using a joint in the future, ” it said.