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“As long as you don’t bother or disturb other people and stay within the legal boundaries, all is well. Everyone should feel fine, because what we are doing is no crime.”

CEO of E-Njoint BV Menno Contant, commenting on his company e-cigarette product, the E-Njoint

This was bound to happen sooner or later; an e-cigarette that can be loaded with THC (Tetra Hydro Cannabinol), the active ingredient in Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) as I’d predicted originally in my article The Electronic Cigarette – Puff the Magic Dragon.

Looks more like sooner, as Dutch company E-Njoint BV is now cranking out 10,000 of their E-Njoints per day from their factory in China. E-Njoint is slowly becoming all the rage in Europe. At a cost of just £7 per joint, their product is the typical design you’d expect of an e-cigarette that’s made for commercial use.

e-joint

Except that this time it’s deliberately advertising its contents, sporting a shape that is unmistakably the tapered profile of a Marijuana Joint with a nice little chrome-plated Cannabis Leaf at the end that lights up each time you decided to drift away in bliss.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t smoke or drink, as I’m decidedly anti-smoking, being as I’m clearly in support of the CAF (Customs Administration Fee) that was placed on all Tobacco products since March 2013 as can be seen from my article Jamaican use of E-Cigarettes usage set to rise as CAF placed on Tobacco Products.

Most likely wary of the growing anti-e-cigarette lobby by the US FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) against their largely unregulated industry, E-Njoint BV has made it a point to declare the ingredients that make up their products:

  • Propylene Glycol
  • Glycerin derived from vegetable sources
  • Naturally derived Flavinoids

Some of these six (6) flavours seem to invoke the idea that a joint can take you to some seriously exotic places:

  • Watermelon
  • Passion Fruit
  • Green Apple
  • Red Cherry

E-Njoint – Dutch company making “Huffing” legal with a side of Marijuana refillable Cartridges

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Albeit they clearly don’t contain THC, Tobacco or Nicotine, they aren’t exactly harmless either. Propylene Glycol and Glycerin are chemicals used as stabilizers or preservatives in many packaged foods and even the making of explosives such as TNT, which is made from Nitro-Glycerine. They are, in their own right, dangerous carcinogens as well and may cause respiratory problems when inhaled in vapour concentrations much higher than those typically found in e-cigarettes.

In fact, these chemicals are usually associated with another dangerous trend of “huffing” among teenagers, where they get high on markers or household cleaning chemicals that have a strong, chemically-produced scent!

But there is the other danger which I’ve been going after ever since these products hit the market: their cartridges can be modified to allow the smoker to unknowingly smoke Marijuana in the form of liquefied THC!

I’m also biased against these products as there’s now a body of evidence based on a scientific study conducted by a team at Boston University led by Genomics and Lung Cancer researcher Dr. Avrum Spira that suggests that they cause Lung Cancer in much the same way that regular cigarettes do as noted in US FDA to finally Regulate E-Cigarettes as Boston Study indicates they cause Lung Cancer

E-Njoint introduces THC smoking to kids – Jamaica’s next Palcohol Moment

So albeit these cannabis-themed E-Njoints may be “the latest trend on the market” as far as e-cigarettes, these “safe components” are not “healthy” as their website claims. Their ability to be modified means that any high-schooler, typically between the ages of 13 to 18 years old, with basic knowledge of seeping Marijuana can make their own Liquid THC and start a business selling refillable THC Cartridges that can be smoked under the quiet. This as Vaping, as the Americans call it, is mostly Water Vapour, with the scent easily maskable by adding flavinoids to the water so that it has a pleasant smell.

The EU may still be on the fence about e-cigarettes. But the US FDA is clearly ready to ban everything from e-cigarettes to hookas and pipes used in Marijuana smoking on the basis of this early study. Here in Jamaica smoking is already banned by Minister of Health Dr. Fenton Ferguson via the Public Health (Tobacco Control) Regulations 2013 using Section 14 and 15 of the Public Health Act.  The Public Health (Tobacco Control) Regulations 2013 is guided by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005.

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And it’s just in time too, as here in Jamaica, we’ve just only recently announced the decriminalization of Marijuana possession in amounts smaller than 2 oz. Minister of Justice Mar Golding has announced what’s effectively an amnesty on Marijuana smoking via changes to the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act announced via a Press Conference held at Jamaica House on Friday June 13th 2014.

Hopefully in the process, this legislative change will rescue many youngsters from imprisonment and a bad police record that’ll scar them for life by giving them the option to have said records expunged, according to General Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, Karl Johnson.

But there is no clear regulation of e-cigarettes within the Public Health (Tobacco Control) Regulations 2013, especially as it relates to devices that are refillable with other compounds other than Nicotine. Especially if that substance is Liquid THC, which under the new changes to the Dangerous Drugs Act and the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act will be “legal” by September 2014, punishable via a mere JA$1000 fine payable outside of the Court system within a thirty (30) day timeframe.

With e-cigarettes slowly becoming an uptown Trend, like Palcohol, expect to see this product also wind up here in Jamaica and challenge out local Tobacco industry in much the same way Red Stripe is facing competition in the Hip Strip and Clubs from Palcohol…..with deadly long-term consequences!

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