Elliot Mercier

Hysteria swept Massachusetts a few months back after the discovery of vaping materials being linked to cases of lethal lung disease. The heartbreaking news of people dying from said lung disease wasn’t what caused the hysteria though. That would be the immediate decision to ban all vaping related products in the state after using incomplete evidence to justify. To everyone concerned about this, it felt like the lawmakers just won a medal in the “Jumping to Conclusions” Olympic event. The quickness of such a decision certainly provided whiplash to a lot of politically minded folk, being used to the suits taking weeks, months and more to even consider the faintest idea of progressing past twenty percent. In any other circumstances, this rare example of the government actually doing something quickly might have been applauded. It’s just too bad this decision was considered presumptuous, counterintuitive and harmful by those who knew a little bit about the vaping and marijuana scene and are actively concerned by how some honest folk could lose their businesses. Lawmakers against the legalization of marijuana have been vocal in their disdain towards its popularity, tending to ignore medicinal dispensaries and targeting the recreational users as well as the “deplorable” consequences on society. During an October debate between House Appropriations Representative Andy Harris and Center of Disease Control Director Anne Schuchat, it was revealed that Harris believed that the premature regulation and legalization of marijuana led to the uninformed youth coming into contact with substances that were harmful to their health. Schuchat retorted that those who were admitted for lung injuries after ingesting a substance were confirmed to have acquired the material through illicit means and not through a licensed dispensary. I bring this point up because last year was a time where debates on every moral and societal facet on marijuana legalization had to be addressed. The first and most important factor was regulation, which was believed to address the dangers of unsafe and untested cannabis being sold by drug peddlers. The regulation brought forth in the bay state reduced drug crime by about seventy percent. The presence of readily available, certifiably safe cannabis also made the prices and products of these illicit dealers unappealing to smokers, not wanting to take the risk of ingesting a bad strain. While the acceptance and legalization of marijuana could be seen as premature and rushed, the overlooked detail or two are part of a necessary “evil” that eliminates much more harm than good. There will always be outliers but the number of them has decreased drastically since regulation was put into place. If you want to avoid anything that might be unhealthy and untested, just steer clear of anything that is devoid of state mandated THC labels, avoid anything in the ingredients section labeled as Vitamin E acetate, and pursue the brands that have already earned a good reputation. If you see someone using materials without any of this, stop them if possible, they don’t know where that came from.