How Weed Legalization Could Have Stopped the Vaping Crisis | Opinions | NowThis

Описание: Weed legalization could have prevented the vape crisis, according to lung doctor Vin Gupta.
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In US news and current events today, cannabis legalization could have save people's lives.

Dr. Vin Gupta: ‘I would argue that the current vaping epidemic that we’re experiencing right now may not have occurred—let me be careful in saying this—may not have occurred, or the chances of it being so—such an epidemic might have been minimized if marijuana was legalized at the federal level.’

Dr. Vin Gupta is an Assistant Professor of Pulmonology at the University of Washington. Gupta says the U.S. government’s prohibition of cannabis might be one of the reasons for the national vaping crisis.

Gupta; ‘When the federal government says that a substance is illegal, they basically are effectively saying, ‘It doesn’t exist to us. That this is an illicit substance. If we want, we could put somebody in jail.’ And, largely, marijuana policy has been considered a—has been viewed through the lens of criminal justice.

We put a lot of people in jail for the purchase of—recreational use of marijuana. It’s a criminal justice issue because now there’s a black market of illegal distributors who are distributing to users who are purchasing it, and that whole purchased product, that whole economy is considered illegal. Who chooses to actually enforce the law? Now that’s a different matter based on the state that you live in.

But the real concern here is that marijuana policy, the utilization of marijuana, should not only be viewed as a criminal justice issue, but it should be viewed as a public health issue, and I would argue that the current vaping epidemic that we’re experiencing right now may not have occurred—let me be careful in saying this—may not have occurred, or the chances of it being so—such an epidemic might have been minimized if marijuana was legalized at the federal level. And that’s to say, we should want, as a public health community, as Americans, we should want more regulation over products that can impact our health and safety. Not less.

But if the FDA says it’s illegal, it’s along the lines of heroin and that’s how it’s gonna be, then the NIH, the FDA basically cannot utilize their expertise, their resources, to evaluate the health and safety of vaping technologies related to the use of marijuana liquids, vaping technologies not related to marijuana at all, just tobacco-flavored pods.'


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