Vaping illnesses spur CCC to require broader disclosure
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Cannabis Control Commission member Jen Flanagan at a CCC meeting prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
The agency in charge of overseeing the legal marijuana industry will begin requiring that all vaporizer cartridges, marijuana extracts and concentrates sold in Massachusetts come with a more detailed list of the chemicals and ingredients they contain.
The new level of transparency comes while public health officials at the federal and state levels eye a multi-state outbreak of lung disease associated with the use of e-cigarettes and vaporizers, or vapes. Many such products can be used to ingest either nicotine or THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has suggested that people stop using those products until it can be determined what is making people sick and, in six cases, dying.
"Given what's happening with the issue surrounding vaping, there's a lot of concern and while I stand by the statement that while the industry says that vaping is safer than smoking, it never said it is safe. People really need to be aware of what's in that product," Cannabis Control Commission member Jen Flanagan said Thursday. "This gives us one layer of protection to tell people what's in the products. It gives consumers an added layer of information to understand what they're ingesting."
The CCC voted on changes to its regulations Thursday, including the new requirement that extract and concentrate manufacturers include on their products' lists of ingredients of every additive used in the product, including thickening agents and specific terpenes, which are oils that naturally occur in cannabis and contribute to its distinctive odor.
The specific requirement is that marijuana product labeling also list "the amount of any specific additives infused or incorporated during the manufacturing process, including, but not limited to, thickening agents and specific terpenes, expressed in absolute terms and as a percentage of volume."
To this point, the CCC's rules for the marijuana industry only required the ingredient list to include information about the cannabinoid profile of the marijuana and its THC content.
"This is something we take very seriously as a commission, it is something that we do intend to work with our licensees to first identify the scope of and then hopefully work to address," CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins said. "It's really an attempt to disclose to patients or to consumers what is actually in the product that they may be procuring."
As of Sept. 6, the CDC had received reports of more than 450 possible cases of lung illness associated with e-cigarette or vaping products from 33 states -- a list that includes Vermont and Massachusetts -- and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Five deaths have been confirmed in California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon, according to the CDC. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported a sixth death Tuesday.
The CDC said its investigation, conducted with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, state and local health departments and other partners, "has not identified any specific substance or e-cigarette product that is linked to all cases" and that "many patients" have reported using e-cigarette products with liquids containing cannabidiol products, such as THC.
The Boston Globe reported last week on the CCC's lack of regulations around vaporizer cartridge additives and the possible connection between one of the vaping-related illnesses seen in other parts of the country and chemicals sometimes used in marijuana vape cartridges.
Collins said the CCC is working to issue a bulletin to all of its licensees explaining the new regulation, which will not be final until the CCC takes a vote to adopt its new set of industry rules. That vote is expected sometime next week.
"We'll also survey our licensees and understand what they're using in their products," Collins said. "We're also working with and trying to collaborate with our labs to better understand their capabilities when it comes to testing and identifying these be it active or inactive ingredients. We're really trying to have a holistic approach to this."
The CDC is recommending that members of the public consider avoiding e-cigarette and vaping products while the investigation is ongoing and that anyone who experiences symptoms like those reported promptly seek medical care. In a statement released Monday, the American Medical Association made a similar recommendation and urged the FDA to ban e-cigarette flavors and "speed up the regulation of e-cigarettes."
In addition to having vape products available for sale at state-licensed retailers, the CCC's new regulations will allow for establishments in which adults will be allowed to socially use marijuana by either vaping it or consuming edible products. The CCC's plan for social consumption would allow such sites to let adults smoke marijuana outside in limited circumstances but would prohibit anyone from combusting marijuana indoors.
The CCC intends to roll out a social consumption pilot program to operate in up to 12 municipalities. Towns that participated in a CCC-led working group on social consumption -- including North Adams, Amherst, Springfield, Provincetown and Somerville -- would be among those able to opt into the pilot.
But before a pilot program for on-site consumption could start, the CCC says lawmakers have to act. In a press release, the agency said the recommended pilot program "would not be able to begin without a change in state law or the passage of legislation that will first allow cities and towns to authorize social consumption in their communities."
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