Could Vaporizer Pens Threaten the Legalization of Marijuana?

Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers support legal marijuana users’ right to a convenient and healthy method to inhale the substance.

Vaporizer pens (vape pens) have become a from of e-cigarette for marijuana smokers. They are doing what the flask does for someone who wants to drink alcohol. They are potent, discreet, and portable.

Vape pens have one significant advantage over traditional methods of inhaling marijuana. That is, the ability to partake undetected. The risk of discovery is minimized significantly with vape pens because they only release a small, largely odorless puff of smoke.

What concerns some about these revolutionary devices is that they could enable individuals to clandestinely smoke in places where they should not be smoking – say in a high school for example.

Although things like marijuana brownies have been around forever, vape pens may not have been what everyone had in mind when they voted to legalize medical marijuana in California almost 20 years ago.

The science behind these devices is quite intriguing. The pens typically use a type of oil or refined wax that can be three times as concentrated as even the most potent buds. In short, this is not your father’s cannabis.

Although the process of creating concentrates from dry herbs can be dangerous (it involves butane), and if not done properly toxins can enter the mix, the real concern remains the ability for minors to use marijuana in secret.

As with most of the marijuana movement the answer has often been regulation.

Marijuana advocates are not in favor of minors making the decision to consume marijuana but this doesn’t mean everyone should lose access to the convenience of vape pens. One big advantage of vaporizing marijuana is that its far easier on the users lungs and less intrusive for the user’s neighbors.

The solution to dealing with the evolution of marijuana concentrates is to get ahead of the situation with regulation. Regulation has the potential to be far more effective if it is developed in anticipation of problems instead of being reactionary.

A lot of cities have decided that concentrates should be completely banned. In 2012, San Francisco’s Department of Health instructed the dispensaries in its city to stop carrying concentrates. Later, the department of health reversed this decision after experience severe backlash.

A NORML marijuana advocate accurately states: “You can either tell people to stop using concentrates, which they won’t, or you can say ‘Let’s regulate it and make sure its done safely.”

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

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Lawmakers Debate Tighter Marijuana Laws – In Colorado Too!, February 19, 2014, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog
Mother Fighting for Cannabis-Based Cancer Treatment, February 7, 2014, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog