Journey of A Tainted Vape Cartridge: A Leafly Investigation

Journey of a Tainted Vape Cartridge: A Leafly Investigation 2019-11-23, 10)42 PM
Journey of a tainted vape cartridge:

from Chinaʼs labs to your lungs
David Downs, Dave Howard, and Bruce Barcott
September 24, 2019
Leafly's investigation tracked a contaminated global supply chain for

illicit market THC vape cartridges. (HighGradeRoots/iStock)
Jon Doneson started feeling ill on a Friday morning in June, after he arrived
home in New York on a red-eye flight from the West Coast. Heʼd traveled to
China, then to California, as part of his job managing the back office of his
wife Susanʼs apparel company. He hoped to re-acclimate to Eastern time,
so rather than resting he went to the gym. But he became ill after his
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workout, vomiting violently and sweating heavily.
Doneson, 52, wrote it off to fatigue. In subsequent weeks Susan pointed out
that he had a strange cough. But to Doneson it wasnʼt particularly
bothersome.
Susan and Jon Doneson fought Jonʼs strange lung illness for weeks. They didnʼt suspect a
THC vape pen until a pulmonologist noticed that heʼd mentioned it on an intake form.
(Courtesy of Jon Doneson)
Then, on August 12, he woke up around 5R30 a.m. feeling something

different.
Jon Doneson was quarantined and “The cough was actually very painful,” he
fighting for his life. Then a says. He experienced night sweats. He had
pulmonologist recalled that he'd
mentioned using a vape pen. a fever and pain. His doctor diagnosed
bronchitis, but the prescribed meds failed
to dent the symptoms. At a follow-up visit, a chest X-ray indicated that

Doneson had double pneumonia. This time his doctor prescribed
doxycycline for the infection.
About ten days later, though, Doneson felt so awful that he asked his wife to
take him to the doctor, who told him to go straight to the emergency room.
When doctors at Manhassetʼs North Shore University Hospital learned heʼd
recently visited China, they quarantined him and tested him for various
ailments. All came back negative.
Next came a battery of nearly a dozen infectious disease specialists and

Centers for Disease Control officials. They clustered around Doneson, who
even in his feverish state knew how surreal the scene looked—bed-ridden
in a pressurized room with a red quarantine sticker on the door. As he
recalls it, “I was totally in disbelief.”
Sickened lungs show up as cloudy on the left x-ray, and clear after treatment of one
suspected VAPI patient in Utah. (Courtesy University of Utah)
Doneson, a Queens native who now lives in Roslyn Heights, considers

himself a healthy person. He runs and works out, doesnʼt smoke, rarely
drinks. He never dreamed heʼd be the patient in a scene out of a Hollywood
contagion movie.
As his situation worsened, doctors asked Susan Doneson to fill out a ‘Do
Not Resuscitateʼ form. She was emotionally devastated. Jon tried to calm
her. “Listen,” he told her, “I had a rock star of 52 years of a life.” But he
wanted to stay alive for their 10-year-old son.
He might have died had a pulmonologist not noted a small detail while
obtaining his medical history: Doneson said that a few months earlier, heʼd
started using a THC vape pen.
North Americaʼs illicit THC vape market
Illicit market THC carts containing high levels of vitamin E oil, confiscated in New York.
(Courtesy New York State Department of Health)
As the world now knows, a multi-billion dollar marketplace exists for illicit
THC vaping devices and cartridges. Millions of street consumers use them,
and unlike vape carts purchased in state-licensed medical marijuana
dispensaries and cannabis stores, illicit products lack regulation and

mandatory testing for potency or purity. Recent reports have estimated that
Americaʼs legal, regulated cannabis industry accounts for only 22% of the
nationʼs $52 billion in cannabis purchases. The other 78% of the THC
market remains untested and out of control.
Until this year, the health effects of street-purchased vape cartridges went
largely unnoticed. Itʼs not clear whether thatʼs because doctors didnʼt spot
earlier vape-related lung irregularities, or if something dramatically changed
in the vaped oil itself in the past few months. What we know is this: Near the
end of 2018, a new additive entered the street THC vape cart supply. And
hundreds of serious pulmonary injuries, and possibly as many as nine
deaths, followed.
Public health officials and labs have discovered the new additive—a form of
vitamin E oil used as a cutting agent—tainting a large amount of the devices
that sick people reported using. At Leafly, we wanted to know how that
additive entered the market, and why.
Our team of reporters and editors investigated the origin of the various
components of a street-market THC vape cartridge. Ultimately, we were
able to identify a contaminated supply chain that begins in the
manufacturing centers of China, runs through the wholesale markets of
downtown Los Angeles, disperses to regional pen-filling operations, and
finally ends up in the hands of unsuspecting consumers like Jon Doneson.
Itʼs important to note that this supply chain The supply chain begins in China,
is not coordinated or controlled by powerful runs through Los Angeles,
disperses to regional pen
drug cartels. Companies small and large factories, and ends up in the lungs
operate independently at every link in the of unsuspecting consumers.
chain.
Along its journey each vape cartridge—also known as a cart—may pick up

lead (the toxic heavy metal), pesticides, unsafe additives like vitamin E oil,
and the residual solvent butane. Each of these ingredients can cause lung
injury. As many as 50 million of these tainted carts may currently be
circulating in the United States. Since the federal Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) began tracking VAPI (vaping-associated lung injury) in July
2019, the agency has documented 530 confirmed or probable cases of
injury. The CDC expects that number to climb.
Most VAPI victims used THC carts purchased in the illicit street market.
Many used THC and nicotine carts, and some claim to have used nicotine
only. All three products can be manufactured with the same hardware. The
same supply chain that produces tainted THC vapes also yields dirty,
counterfeit JUUL pods for the nicotine market, and tainted CBD carts for
the CBD market.
Peter Hackett is the owner of Air Vapor Systems, a Concord, California-

based company that imports vaporizer cartridges. He says it takes less
effort to get into the fake JUUL or cheap CBD cart game than it does to get
into the tainted THC cart game.
“Itʼs ten times easier,” he says. “You can buy nicotine on Amazon. Same for
CBD. Every constituent up till the THC oil is exactly the same.”
Public health officials have raised the alarm about illicit THC vape cartridges
for more than two months now. In early September, Leafly identified the
suspected toxic substance—tocopheryl-acetate (vitamin E oil)—and the
brand names of the vape cart additives containing it. Although some
companies have stopped selling them, tocopheryl-acetate cutting agents
remain largely available for purchase and in the illicit THC vape cart market
still today.
Step 1: cheap hardware from Chinese factories

Type in “empty” and “cartridge” into the e-commerce site Alibaba, and
dozens of Chinese manufacturers pop up, offering to make them to order.
The cheapest run about 59 cents per cart, if you order 10,000 or more. For
a few pennies extra you can have a customized logo engraved on each tank.
The same manufacturer will create packaging, too. Just say the word and
send the money.
More than 95% of North Americaʼs illicit

If youʼre vaping something illicit, it
was probably made in the BaoʼAn
vape pen hardware is manufactured in the
district of Shenzhen.
BaoʼAn District of Shenzhen, China, says
Peter Hackett, the industry expert who regularly does business there.
“If youʼre vaping something, it was made in BaoʼAn in Shenzhen,” he says.

“Thereʼs over 1,000 factories and hundreds more [getting in the game]
every day.”
Many factories are “little more than a collection of people trying not to
starve,” added Hackett. “Theyʼll make you anything.”
Last year those factories were making fidget spinners. This year theyʼre
turning out empty vape cartridges, fake JUUL pods, and counterfeit
packaging.
Workers bundle those cartridges and packages, then shrink-wrap, pallet,

and load them onto a cargo container ship. Twenty days later they arrive at
the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, the busiest container port in
the United States. From there, they go either to the direct-mail customer or
to brokers in the Toy District in Los Angeles.
Step 2: the Los Angeles wholesale market

Cheap imported vaping hardware can be had at wholesale volumes and prices in downtown
Los Angeles. (David Downs/Leafly)
The center of North Americaʼs illicit vape cart industry is a 12-block region
near LAʼs Skid Row. Itʼs known as the Toy District, because years ago it
served as the center of Americaʼs cheap wholesale toy industry. Today it
remains the place to buy low-quality imported goods in large lots: toys,
restaurant equipment, party supplies, votive candles.
Between East 3rd and Boyd, itʼs all vapes, LA's Toy District serves as the
vapes, and more vapes. It only takes a wad nation's cheap-goods wholesale
market, and the vape stores are
of cash and an hour of haggling to buy booming.
everything you need to begin harming
consumers with an illicit market THC vape cart, a fake JUUL pod, or
something advertised as CBD.
Why bother to purchase at a brick-and-mortar store when Alibaba can ship
it direct? Because Alibaba requires a credit card and leaves a digital

footprint. LAʼs wholesale market deals in cash.
“If you sell $300,000 in [illicit vape] carts, you canʼt walk into a bank with
that. You have no stated business,” Hackett explains. “Third Street is an
easy place to go in with dirty cash, and come out with more supplies.”
On Friday, Sept. 13, a Leafly investigative team wandered through this

neighborhood spotting empty vape carts and counterfeit empty Juul pods.
LAʼs Toy District is not a high-rent neighborhood. Just blocks from ritzy new
downtown condos, addicts openly inject drugs on the sidewalk. A homeless
guy wanders in and out of street traffic without pants or underwear. You
breath shallow in the thick car exhaust.
Each storefront is dingy, poorly lit, and stocked with disheveled, half-open
cardboard boxes and sales racks. Big metal fans blow the hot air around,
while radios buzz loud scratchy music. Every item youʼd find in a head shop
or vape shop, youʼll find here wholesale—like some loud, chaotic vape
bazaar.
Vape hardware: cheap, cheaper, cheapest
Every type of vape cart, for wholesale in downtown LA. (David Downs/Leafly)
Walking in and out of the rows of wholesale vape supply stores, we posed
as aspiring vape pen makers, “just doing some pricing for our boss.”
In each store, a salesperson quickly walked up and peppered us with

questions. “What you looking for? … What size? … Ceramic? … You need
packaging? … Minimum order is 100. … Yeah, prices go down after 1,000
units. What brand you with?”
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There is no difference between an empty vape cart destined to hold THC,

versus one for nicotine, or CBD. Itʼs all for sale, from the same people, to
anyone with cash.
Itʼs an open question whether the carts sold here would pass Californiaʼs
tough adult-use cannabis testing standards. Since testing started on Jan. 1,
2019, labs have quarantined many vapes for too much lead—either because
of the lead in the metal itself, or because factories wash the finished
product in diesel fuel, which leaches lead into the carts.
Unsafe additive available, too
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Honey Cut advertised for sale alongside empty carts in downtown LA. (David Downs/Leafly)
In addition to the low quality hardware, LAʼs Toy District vape wholesalers
sell the dangerous additives not approved for human inhalation— including
dubiously sourced terpene flavorings and hazardous diluent thickeners like
vitamin E oil. You can also purchase more traditional diluents like propylene
glycol, polyethylene glycol, and vegetable glycerin.
These chemicals also get made in China.

Vitamin E acetate is still available
for purchase in LA, despite health
Many come in packaging labeled as “FDA-
warnings.
approved” and “generally recognized as
safe” (GRAS). But a previous Leafly investigation found that those
designations, with regard to vitamin E oil, apply only in cases of oral
ingestion (eating) or application to the skin, not for vaporization and
inhalation. They comprise a tame part of the global cosmetics and
supplements industries. Street markets divert the drums, pails, and gallon
jugs of these chemicals into the vape channel.
Among all the additives, thereʼs one that makes every vendor in the Toy
District tense up and start shaking their head: “Honey Cut.”
After asking around, our local guide ‘Marcusʼ reported that “you wonʼt find
anyone down here selling it.” He said news reports have frightened it off the
shelves. “Theyʼre scared to sell it.”
Honey Cut swept through the Toy District in late 2018. The groundbreaking
product, produced by a mysterious company in Los Angeles, offered
manufacturers the ability to cut THC oil concentrations by 50% to 70%
without consumers noticing—because instead of thinning the viscosity of
the vape oil, it actually thickened it. (Consumers use oil thickness as a proxy
for purity.) Honey Cut is odorless, tasteless, and didnʼt make consumers
cough, so they could inhale it deep into their lungs. And it was cheap, too.
Why would manufacturers want to cut THC oil? The same reason theyʼd cut
any street drug: to make more money. Thanks to the math of cutting, a vape
cart maker could spend $50 to produce $4,800 in revenue. How? Hackett
explains:
Take a liter of bulk THC oil—itʼs pricey at $6,000. Now increase its volume
by 30% with vitamin E oil (300 ml for $50). As long as no one notices, you
now have 1,300 mls of THC oil worth $7,800, having spent just $50.
Furthermore, retail markup magnifies the profits of cutting. Each 1-gram

street cart retails for $16. (A licensed, regulated, and tested cannabis oil
vape cart in a legal adult-use state like California or Washington typically
retails for $40 to $60.) So $16,000 in uncut oil becomes $20,800 in cut oil.
You just made almost $5,000 extra dollars by adding $50 worth of invisible
poison to the mix.
Honey Cut inspired copycats
Leafly has learned that as many as 40 brands—some legal, some not—

quickly copied Honey Cut. They paid lab technicians to specify the chemical
formula, and started selling their own versions. Some major, legitimate
additive brands followed suit. Some initial sellers misread the research and
FDA signal on the safety of vitamin E oil. Others didnʼt care and just followed
the fad to bank the profits.
Floraplex released Uber Thick— which two lab tests confirmed is vitamin E
oil. Mass Terpenes put out Pure Diluent—also vitamin E oil, New York
authorities said. And Mr Extractor of Oregon released Clear Cut—same
thing. Vitamin E oil use peaked this summer, right as the VAPI poisonings
ramped up. Vitamin E oil might be in 60-70% of street carts, insiders say.
We went to the The Terpene Lab at 330 E. 3rd St—the same place where
Mr Extractor founder Drew Jones filmed a YouTube video advertising Clear
Cut for use in heavy amounts, nationwide. The product name “Clear Cut”
still sits on printed menus at the bar. But when we ask the salesperson for
thickener, she asks a manager who quickly barks back, “No! We donʼt have
any! No!”
The makers of Honey Cut called every vendor in the Toy District after
Leaflyʼs Sept. 7 article, which named Honey Cut as a potential cause of the
injuries. The company told them to stop selling it: ‘Itʼs recalled. Itʼs not safe.ʼ
Honey Cutʼs website and ordering page disappeared.
Other manufacturers have since suspended sales of their thickeners.

Floraplex and Mr Extractor no longer offer Uber Thick and Clear Cut,
respectively.
Still, in the Toy District, one vendor offered to sell us thickener under the
table, outside of the store.
At a store called Cali Kulture, we bought some of the last diluent thickener
overtly for sale in the Toy District. Itʼs called Peak Terpenes Thicc Stretch
and itʼs priced at $90 for 30 milliliters. The label says itʼs a secret mix of
fruit, nuts, and other plant oils, and thereʼs a nut allergy warning. Itʼs clear,
innocuous smelling, and viscous like honey.
Leafly had SC Labs, an independent cannabis testing company with

laboratories in California and Oregon, analyze the substance. The report
found that itʼs almost all vitamin E oil. Peak Terpenes has since pulled the
product from its online catalog.
“These products are great if you want to make beard oil,” says Arnaud
Dumas de Rauly, a vape hardware expert at The Blinc Group. “The vitamin E
oil acts as a preservative. Itʼs good for your skin. Itʼs not great for your
lungs.”
Furthermore, that nut allergy warning wonʼt get passed down by the person
who fills an illicit pen and sells it, De Rauly said. Just imagine what inhaling
peanut oil would do to someone with a nut allergy. It could kill them.
Right after we bought Thicc Stretch, Cali Kulture staff got spooked and
pulled the last of the red bottles off the shelf.
Fake packaging available, too
To illicit vape cart manufacturers, fake and counterfeit packaging is just as

important as cheap hardware and thickeners. Street consumers also shop
by brand, so Toy District stores compete to offer the most diverse array of
counterfeit or popular street designs around. That includes the popular
black market brands Dank Vapes and Chronic Carts, brand names with no
actual company behind them. Wholesalers also offer counterfeits of
packaging from legal licensed brands like Cookies, STIIZY, and Brass
Knuckles.
At one wholesaler, a saleswoman asked a Leafly editor about the Connected

Cannabis Co. T-shirt he wore. Connected is a popular state-licensed
cultivator and retailer in California.
“Hey, where did you get that shirt? Do you work for them? No? Good,
because if you did, I would have to throw you out.”
“Why?” the editor asked.
“We sell [counterfeits of] their bags,” she said, and smiled.
At a store called Cart Cartel, we were told they had sold out of Dank Vapes
boxes. Their next shipment was due in the following Tuesday. “Call us first,”
a salesman told us. “We always get the packages first around here.”
Counterfeit packaging for sale in downtown Los Angeles. Supreme and Cookies are both
popular state-licensed brands, and illicit manufacturers copy their design changes as soon
as theyʼre made. (David Downs/Leafly)
We returned to one of the biggest, most prominent stores—Cali Kulture, at

306 Wall St.—where we haggled and agreed to buy Dank Vapes packaging,
a minimum order of 1,000 packages, for $120.
At a smaller shop near Cali Kulture, we bought the exact Chronic Carts
Runtz strain packaging found on a VAPI victim in New York. The dealer sold
us 20 units for $2. His next-door neighbor took one of our team memberʼs
mobile phone number and now sends regular texts advertising new
products.
At the end of the day, hereʼs what we walked away with: five sample vape
carts; 1,000 units of fake-brand packaging with professional-looking
designs and names like DANK and Chronic Vape—the same bogus brand
packages that public health officials have seized from VAPI patients injured
in New York and California; and perhaps most disturbingly, we bought 30
milliliters of chemical cutting agent—known as thickener—weeks after
Leafly identified them as a leading suspect in the lung injuries. These
cutting agents were never approved for inhalation, and can cause an allergic
or toxic lung reaction.
All of this hardware, chemicals, and packaging is technically legal until you
put an illegal drug into it. We spent a total of $210. We kept the receipts.
Step 3: regional pen factories

Los Angeles hosts the national hub for illicit cartridge parts and THC oil
additives, but the cannabis oil that goes into those carts is manufactured in
regional facilities around the country. This is often a house or condominium
rented as a residential space, but secretly used as a butane hash oil
manufacturing lab.
Contaminants coming from this process include concentrated pesticides

like myclobutanil—which turns into toxic hydrogen cyanide when burned—
as well as residual solvents like butane, propane, pentane, and hexane. All
are known lung irritants.
These THC oil labs then wholesale bulk distillate via online sites, or through
their own networks to “pen factories”—places that bring all these inputs
together.
Law enforcement officials allege this pen factory in Wisconsin stocked tens of thousands of
fake-brand packages for illicit vape cartridges. (Courtesy of Kenosha County Sheriffʼs
Department)
Each pen factory might employ as many as a dozen workers at $10 to $20
an hour.
The setup at a house allegedly rented by the Huffhines brothers in Bristol,

Wisconsin, seems typical. Bristol is a Kenosha County village about 40
miles south of Milwaukee. Itʼs a short commute east of the town of Paddock
Lake, where Tyler Huffhines, age 20, and his older brother Jacob, 23, live
with their parents.
Though barely out of his teens, Tyler already had a reputation as something
of a business prodigy. The Kenosha News wrote a story about him in 2018
when the Central High School student ran his own online shoe company.
The headline was, “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”
Tyler Huffhines. (Courtesy Kenosha County Sheriff)
After graduation, law enforcement officials allege that Tyler pivoted from
sneakers to illegal THC vape cartridges. According to the Kenosha County
Sheriffʼs Office, the Huffhines brothers rented a condominium in Bristol and
invested in tens of thousands of empty vape cartridges and product
packaging.
Law enforcement officials contend that the Huffhines brothers purchased

illicit-market cannabis oil from unlicensed producers in California, then
combined it with other ingredients in the Bristol condo. Court documents
state that deputies discovered 57 glass Mason jars filled with the oil when
they searched the residence.
In locations like the Huffhines brothersʼ Wisconsin condo, the cannabis oil
can come in a variety of containers. Tocopheryl-acetate (vitamin E oil) is
sold in volumes ranging from ounces to full metal drums. Workers cut the
THC oil with vitamin E oil or other unsafe thickeners, add in some flavoring
also not approved for inhalation, and syringe one milliliter of the mix into
each 1-gram vape cartridge.
The filled cartridges get placed into pre-printed packaging material

purchased from the Los Angeles wholesale markets. At the Huffhines condo
in Wisconsin, thousands of filled vape carts were allegedly sealed into
packages with the Dank Vapes and Chronic brands—exactly the kinds of
boxes purchased by Leafly in LAʼs Toy District. A law enforcement raid
earlier this month at a similar illegal vape cart factory in Phoenix also yielded
an oversized duffel bag holding hundreds of similar Dank Vapes boxes. Just
yesterday, law enforcement officials seized 75,000 illegal vape carts at an
alleged pen factory in Anoka County, Minnesota. They, too, were sealed in
Dank Vapes packaging.
Chronic Carts, the same fake-brand packaging sold in the Los Angeles wholesale markets,
turned up in the Wisconsin pen factory. (Courtesy of Kenosha County Sheriffʼs Department)
Fake brands become ‘realʼ through repetition
Dank Vapes is not an actual brand or company. Itʼs a creation of packaging

wholesalers. But when illegal vape cart makers in Wisconsin, Arizona,
Minnesota, and other regional hubs buy them by the tens of thousands
from LA wholesalers, they combine to form a bizarre sort of national brand
presence. You might see Dank Vapes THC vape carts for sale in Michigan,
Georgia, or Nebraska—but each contains a cart made by an independent
street-market manufacturer. Dank Vapes itself does not exist.
The Huffhines brothersʼ operation in 'Dank Vapes' doesn't actually

Briston, Wisconsin, allegedly moved a lot of exist, but it's a brand name seen
nationwide.
units. The Kenosha County Sheriff
estimates that they filled 5,000 cartridges a day. Investigators found 31,200
filled cartridges ready for shipping, along with 98,000 empty carts.
Carts from their operation may have sent consumers to the hospital. In late
July, a man in his mid-20s checked in to Aurora Memorial Hospital in

Burlington, Wisconsin—about 17 miles from Bristol. The man reported
trouble breathing. Within 24 hours, doctors put him into a medically induced
coma.
The manʼs brother turned over a suspect vape cart and package to the
authorities. It was a Dank Vapes cartridge. That same week, Childrenʼs
Hospital in Milwaukee reported treating eight patients with severe lung
damage in the previous four weeks. The common thread: vaping street-
market THC cartridges.
It took law enforcement officials seven weeks to trace a local supply of

Dank Vapes cartridges back to their alleged source: The Huffhines
brothersʼ condo in Bristol. (Law enforcement officials have not directly
linked the alleged Huffhines operation to the hospitalized manʼs condition.)
The brothers were arrested on Sept. 11 and now face multiple drug charges.
Step 4: local street sellers

Regional pen factories move their product to retailers and consumers in a
number of ways. THC pen factories retail directly to locals, or strangers
online via social media and the dark web. They also wholesale to
broker/distributors who move the vape carts to retail markets.
In New York City, the illicit vape Illicit THC vape cart retailers operate coast
market flourishes because legal to coast—from the more than 2,800
products from medical
dispensaries are limited and unlicensed stores in California, to the fleets
expensive. of drug couriers pedaling the streets of
New York City, and plenty of local high
school dealers in between.
In New York City, the illicit vape cart market flourishes in part because
licensed, legal products from medical dispensaries are limited and

extraordinarily expensive. A lab-tested medical marijuana vape cartridge
that typically costs $40-$60 in California can run up to $165 in a New York
City dispensary. Thatʼs ten times the price of an illicit vape cart.
That price gap has created a thriving illegal industry selling carts through
NYCʼs clandestine delivery services, at pop-up cannabis markets, and in
some corner bodegas.
Oleg MaryAces, director of education and marketing at Lock & Key

Remedies, a New York-area CBD product maker, told Leafly that the
Northeast saw a flood of cheap cannabis vape pens in early 2019.
“When California implemented its testing law, they had hundreds of

thousands of vapes in warehouses that they could no longer sell because of
pesticide regulations, he says. “So they dumped them in the Northeast.
Prices dropped a lot, and it fueled the market here.”
Since the VAPI outbreak, New Yorkʼs illicit cannabis delivery services have
used the health scare to assure their customers that their own products are
clean. “Theyʼre tested,” one delivery specialist told Leafly. (We agreed to
not publish his name, for obvious legal reasons.) “Thereʼs no vitamin E
acetate.”
True? False? Nobody knows. His customers would have to take his word for
it, as there is no testing documentation nor any regulations requiring same.
“Some of my friends would buy oils from delis and stuff,” he added. “They
were really cheap. I knew those would be bad quality. Why the fuck would
you buy weed from your deli dude?”
Step 5: consumption and hospitalization
Once it made its way into New York Cityʼs sprawling illicit vape cart market,
a single tainted cartridge—or maybe several—made its way into Jon
Donesonʼs personal supply.
Jon and Susan Doneson. (Courtesy of Jon Doneson)
Doneson, the middle-aged Long Island marketing expert, started

experimenting with vaping a few months before his trip to China last
summer.
A stranger introduced him to vape pens early in 2019 like many Americans
have over the past year—at a party, randomly, when someone pulled one
out and offered it to him. As a naturally high-octane guy who had recently
plunged headlong into a start-up enterprise with his wife, he liked the idea
of having access to something that relaxed him.
A few months later, he found his own supply.
Doneson declines to detail how he came to possess the vape pen and THC
cartridge that caused his illness, but it wasnʼt through the stateʼs licensed
medical marijuana system. “Iʼm not going to name places,” he says. “Iʼm not
going to name people, but theyʼre more available than one might think,
okay? You know, itʼs easier to get that for a 15-, 16-year-old than a six-pack
of beer at the grocery store.”
He says he purchased vaping supplies on Jon Doneson says he purchased

multiple occasions and never had any vaping supplies on multiple
occasions and never had any
reason to suspect anything amiss about the reason to suspect anything amiss
product. He doesnʼt recall the brand he about the product. 'It was like
buying a carton of milk.'
used, but the vape pen that caused his
illness came packaged in a “fancy box” that looked legitimate—“like buying
a carton of milk… Thereʼs no reason to second-guess or question anything.”
It worked for him. Doneson typically took a pull six or eight times a day. The
THC vapor took the edge off in a way that left him fully functional and
without the smell of cannabis on his breath. “I liked it,” he says. “It really did
do the things they said itʼd do.
Until, of course, it almost killed him. Vitamin E oil is thought to block the
fluid lining of your lungs, like saran-wrapping them shut. The toxin kicks off
an aggressive immune response to clear the contaminant, and if that
response fails, runaway inflammation, fluid build-up, and cell damage
increases until the lungs fail.
An abnormal lung immune cell (left) filled with oil, versus a healthy immune cell (right).
(Courtesy of Andrew Hansen MD, Jordan Valley Medical Center)
The pulmonologist who correctly diagnosed Doneson treated what the

hospital later termed “a devastating lung illness” with a cocktail of
antibiotics and steroids.
Doneson says that once he received the correct meds, his improved
quickly. Early the next morning, he woke up in a dark room.
“I laid there literally for 10 minutes, trying to figure out, ‘Am I alive, dead?
Am I in hell, heaven? Where the hell am I?ʼ Then I realized, I started
laughing, I realized, ‘Wait a minute, not only am I alive, but I think I feel
better.ʼ”
The hospital discharged him the following day.
When Donesonʼs vape pen cartridge was tested, the results came back
positive for formaldehyde, pesticides, vitamin E, and THC.
Nine people have died in this country from vape devices in the past few
months. Doneson came “very, very, very close to being number [ten],” he
says. North Shoreʼs Annamaria Iakovou, a pulmonary and critical care
physician, notes that over the past three months, her hospital has seen
more than a dozen cases involving patients with similar symptoms.
Lessons learned
At a certain point in this story, Leaflyʼs investigative team came to a dark
realization: Now that we have nationwide surveillance and reporting in
place, the CDCʼs numbers of the sick and dead arenʼt going to stop
climbing until everyone in the United States who wants a clean THC vape
cart can purchase one in a legal, licensed, and regulated store.
Alcohol prohibitionʼs end solved bathtub gin poisonings. But weʼre still a
ways away from the end of cannabis prohibition in the US. In a best case
scenario, this VAPI outbreak could spur progress, and not retreat, because
the facts are clear:
Legal adult access to tested cannabis in the US is already cleaning up
the supply chain. Adult-use states have proven far more immune to this
outbreak than prohibition states. Of the 530 confirmed and suspected
cases, one is potentially linked to a licensed store, in Oregon, and five
in Washington.
Most state cannabis regulators have recalled problematic products in
the past. Over the last 18 months, California has quarantined more than
5,639 licensed cannabis batches for issues including labeling problems
(2,379 batches), pesticides (1,585), residual solvents (339), and heavy
metals (393). After VAPI news broke, regulators immediately moved to
tighten ingredients disclosure requirements in Massachusetts. Oregon
regulators told stores to pull suspicious products. Those measures are
possible because regulation exists. The street market canʼt do that,
and wonʼt.
Meanwhile, the federal era of malignant neglect of the US cannabis supply

chain must come to an end.
'Regulation, not prohibition, is the “Regulation, not prohibition, is the answer

answer here. Black market, here,” University of Denver law professor
unregulated nicotine and cannabis
products are the worst threat Sam Kamin wrote in response to the VAPI
here.' health crisis. “Black market, unregulated
Sam Kamin, University of Denver nicotine and cannabis products are the
law professor
worst threat here.”
Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy researcher at RAND, added: “If vapes are
going to be allowed, then stronger testing, oversight, and regulations are
needed, which presumably includes being tougher on violators, either with
government action and/or with product liability lawsuits.”
President Obama and President Trump have both allowed states to legalize,
one by one. Most 2020 presidential candidates support some form of
legalization. Julian Castro recently became the first to directly connect a

coherent federal policy to consumer safety. He tweeted on Sept. 11: “We
need to legalize cannabis nationwide and properly regulate products in
order to keep folks safe.”
For legal, state-licensed companies, the VAPI health crisis has acted as a
wakeup call. They must beef up their anti-counterfeiting technology and
education programs. Theyʼre distancing themselves from additives and
thickeners—which must disappear from all legal products, immediately.
Finally, consumers have begun making healthy choices. Online message

board Redditʼs page “fakecartridges” is full of consumers across the nation
tossing their tainted carts in the trash.
In the legal markets, vape sales were down 15% in early September off the
three-month average. Oregon in particular saw a staggering 65% drop in
pen sales.
To Jon Doneson, now recovering at home on Long Island, the lesson of all
this is clear: Until the United States begins to regulate the market for these
products, avoid using them. He worries that even legitimate dispensaries
might sell cartridges cut with toxic substances, either unknowingly or as a
way of pumping up profits.
“Get rid of all your THC pens,” he says. “Thatʼs it. You donʼt know. Itʼs
Russian roulette. You donʼt know if itʼs a good one or a bad one. So, why
take the risk?”
“Iʼm sure the Chinese are putting a lot of product into American hands. A lot
of bootlegs are coming in from out of the country. Wherever thereʼs money
to be made, people are going to do what they can.”
Max Savage Levenson contributed research and reporting to this

investigation.
David Downs covers cannabis news and culture as Leafly's California

Bureau Chief. He's written for WIRED, Rolling Stone and Billboard, and is the
former cannabis editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. TW: @davidrdowns |
IG @daviddowns
Dave Howard is a national magazine editor and award-winning author. His

most recent book is 'Chasing Phil: The Adventures of Two Undercover
Agents With the World's Most Charming Con Man.'
Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees the site's news coverage and
feature investigations. He is the author of 'Weed the People: The Future of
Legal Marijuana in America,' and has written for Time, Rolling Stone, the
New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and other national
publications.
View David Downs, Dave Howard, and Bruce Barcott's articles

Journey of A Tainted Vape Cartridge: A Leafly Investigation

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Journey of a Tainted Vape Cartridge: A Leafly Investigation 2019-11-23, 10)42 PM

Journey of a tainted vape cartridge:

September 24, 2019

Leafly's investigation tracked a contaminated global supply chain for

workout, vomiting violently and sweating heavily.

Then, on August 12, he woke up around 5R30 a.m. feeling something

to dent the symptoms. At a follow-up visit, a chest X-ray indicated that

Next came a battery of nearly a dozen infectious disease specialists and

Doneson, a Queens native who now lives in Roslyn Heights, considers

North Americaʼs illicit THC vape market

dispensaries and cannabis stores, illicit products lack regulation and

Along its journey each vape cartridge—also known as a cart—may pick up

Peter Hackett is the owner of Air Vapor Systems, a Concord, California-

Step 1: cheap hardware from Chinese factories

More than 95% of North Americaʼs illicit

“If youʼre vaping something, it was made in BaoʼAn in Shenzhen,” he says.

Workers bundle those cartridges and packages, then shrink-wrap, pallet,

Step 2: the Los Angeles wholesale market

Why bother to purchase at a brick-and-mortar store when Alibaba can ship

it direct? Because Alibaba requires a credit card and leaves a digital

On Friday, Sept. 13, a Leafly investigative team wandered through this

Vape hardware: cheap, cheaper, cheapest

In each store, a salesperson quickly walked up and peppered us with

There is no difference between an empty vape cart destined to hold THC,

Unsafe additive available, too

These chemicals also get made in China.

District tense up and start shaking their head: “Honey Cut.”

Furthermore, retail markup magnifies the profits of cutting. Each 1-gram

Honey Cut inspired copycats

Leafly has learned that as many as 40 brands—some legal, some not—

Other manufacturers have since suspended sales of their thickeners.

Leafly had SC Labs, an independent cannabis testing company with

Fake packaging available, too

To illicit vape cart manufacturers, fake and counterfeit packaging is just as

At one wholesaler, a saleswoman asked a Leafly editor about the Connected

“Why?” the editor asked.

We returned to one of the biggest, most prominent stores—Cali Kulture, at

Step 3: regional pen factories

Contaminants coming from this process include concentrated pesticides

The setup at a house allegedly rented by the Huffhines brothers in Bristol,

Tyler Huffhines. (Courtesy Kenosha County Sheriff)

Law enforcement officials contend that the Huffhines brothers purchased

The filled cartridges get placed into pre-printed packaging material

Fake brands become ‘realʼ through repetition

Dank Vapes is not an actual brand or company. Itʼs a creation of packaging

The Huffhines brothersʼ operation in 'Dank Vapes' doesn't actually

July, a man in his mid-20s checked in to Aurora Memorial Hospital in

It took law enforcement officials seven weeks to trace a local supply of

Step 4: local street sellers

licensed, legal products from medical dispensaries are limited and

Oleg MaryAces, director of education and marketing at Lock & Key

“When California implemented its testing law, they had hundreds of

Step 5: consumption and hospitalization

Jon and Susan Doneson. (Courtesy of Jon Doneson)

Doneson, the middle-aged Long Island marketing expert, started

A few months later, he found his own supply.

He says he purchased vaping supplies on Jon Doneson says he purchased

The pulmonologist who correctly diagnosed Doneson treated what the

quickly. Early the next morning, he woke up in a dark room.

The hospital discharged him the following day.

Legal adult access to tested cannabis in the US is already cleaning up

Meanwhile, the federal era of malignant neglect of the US cannabis supply

'Regulation, not prohibition, is the “Regulation, not prohibition, is the answer