In June 2019, hospitals across the U.S. began seeing cases of lung injuries that were linked to vaping. Patients complained of pneumonia-like symptoms, shortness of breath, cough and chest pain, and also fever, stomach pain and diarrhea. By the following February, 2,807 cases and 68 deaths were reported across all 50 states by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (That same month, the CDC stopped collecting data on these cases, in part due to a decline in cases and the rise of COVID-19.)
A majority of these cases involved THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) vaporizers, which contain the active ingredient in cannabis, yet the CDC described these injuries as E-cigarette or Vaping use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI). Most of these vapes were likely sold on the black market, not in state-legal dispensaries, and most injuries occurred in states where cannabis is not legal for adult use, according to a 2020 review published ...
