BOSTON — David O’Brien, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, heard from one marijuana dispensary in central Massachusetts that is sitting on $100,000 worth of vaping products, which it cannot sell due to the state ban.
O’Brien said the marijuana products sold in licensed stores in Massachusetts adhere to state rules regarding things like testing. “The products in legally licensed stores are not the issue,” O’Brien said. “We believe it’s the black market, and products that are sold to people in the underground economy.” He hopes the ban will be adapted accordingly.
Gov. Charlie Baker last month banned the sale of all vaping products in Massachusetts amid a nationwide outbreak of vaping-related illnesses, which has so far sickened at least 1,600 people and killed 34, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Massachusetts has reported 46 probable or confirmed cases to the CDC, and one Massachusetts woman has died.
Baker has defended the ban as necessary to protect public health until researchers can figure out the exact cause of the outbreak. Vape stores are challenging the ban in court, and litigation is ongoing.
On Friday, at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, some businesses continued to advertise vape products, although they could not legally make any sales in the state. A number of businesses and consumers expressed frustration with the ban.
Liam Eckhoff, of Billerica, quit smoking at 18 and switched to vaping “because I thought it was a healthy alternative.” He has been vaping for a year and a half. He hopes to quit soon because he knows vaping is addictive. But for now, he is simply going to New Hampshire, where his mother lives, to get products.
“I’m trying to stop, but it’s not as easy as it sounds,” he said.
Michael Tucker, of North Andover, used to occasionally get vaping products from friends who were more regular users. Now, those friends don’t have the products to give him. Some are driving to New Hampshire to get stock.
“I don’t think people are trying to quit,” Tucker said.
Julia Germaine, co-founder of marijuana dispensary Temescal Wellness, said she is seeing consumers switch from vaping cartridges to vaping crushed marijuana flower. (A judge on Thursday ruled that the vape ban cannot prohibit the sale of crushed flower to medical marijuana patients.)
The ban means business has “come to a screeching halt in Massachusetts,” according to Matt Kellem, an account manager at Coastal Vape Co., which manufactures and distributes vape products to clients nationwide. Some dispensaries are sitting on products. Kellem said his bigger concern is that, even once the ban is lifted, it will be hard to convince people that vaping is safe.
“The main issue for me is that now all people believe that vapes in general are bad, that all vapes are harmful, when in reality it’s just a couple of people in the market that gave everyone a bad name,” Kellem said.
The CDC has warned against buying unregulated THC products, but has not yet attributed the illnesses to a single cause or compound. The CDC has warned that there is no completely safe tobacco product.
At a panel discussion, Kyle Bishop, chief operating officer and co-owner of marijuana dispensary Northeast Alternatives, also attributed the deaths to black market products.
“Charlie Baker decides the best idea to do is stop all the legal guys when every one of these has come from the black market,” Bishop said. “We know prohibition doesn’t work. So what do we do? We prohibit something.”
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