By Becky Long
Publisher
Clay County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call on Thursday, April 27 involving “a few” students in possession of vape pens, according to Sheriff Mark Buchanan.
The incident occurred at Hayesville Middle School. One student received medical treatment after using one of the vape pens, Buchanan said. “Thankfully the student recovered from the effects of its use.”
One of the vape pens was what the sheriff described as a multi-use device, meaning that it was refillable. The pen was a pre-load single use “Cake” brand device containing THC.
“It was most likely ordered from the internet and advertised as containing Delta-8 THC,” Buchanan said. “No other drugs were believed to have been involved with regard to this incident.”
The sheriff explained that in 2018 the federal “Farm Bill” legalized hemp or the cannabis plant containing a Delta-9 THC content of 0.3 percent or less. Marijuana is a cannabis plant containing a Delta-9 THC content of more than 0.3 percent.
He said the cannabis plant also has very small amounts of Delta-8 THC which can be synthesized in to greater amounts as needed. The effects of ingesting Delta-8 THC are similar to that of marijuana but milder.
“State and federal laws are not at all consistent when it comes to the regulation of Delta-8 THC or Delta-9 THC for that matter,” Buchanan said.
“Using any vape pen provided by someone else is “rolling the dice” when it comes to personal safety,” Buchanan said. “ As with hypodermic needles that our officers seize on a regular basis, these vape pens can be loaded with methamphetamine, cocaine, DMT, heroin, fentanyl and of course Delta-8 & Delta-9 THC. As we’ve seen many times here in Clay County with all of the fentanyl overdoses, this student was fortunate that a grain of salt-sized bit of fentanyl wasn’t dissolved in the vape pen mixture.”
Clay County Schools have a campus-wide no smoking policy which is clearly stated by signs on campus. According to a policy prohibiting tobacco deprived products, vaping is also prohibited. The policy states: “The Clay County Board of Education is committed to providing students, staff, and visitors with a tobacco free environment, free of both smoke and smokeless products, including such items as vapor and e-cigarette products for which this policy is directed. Some such products allow students to inhale flavored vapor containing nicotine or other harmful substances, often without detection. The purpose of this policy is to provide measures for prohibiting the use or distribution of such products.”
According to North Carolina law:
• E-liquid, with or without nicotine, must be sold in child-resistant packaging.
• Under federal law, it is unlawful to sell or distribute tobacco products, including eliquid or vapor devices to persons under 21 years of age. Purchase of a tobacco or vapor products by a person under age is also a class 2 misdemeanor.
• A license is required to sell tobacco and vapor products.
• Online sales require age verification via a third party service and retailers must obtain a license and file with the state a memo or copy of the invoice for each such sale each month. These requirements could cause many out-of-state on-line retailers to refuse to ship to the state.
According to the Center for Disease Control, scientists are still learning about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes. Among them:
• Some of the ingredients in e-cigarette aerosol could also be harmful to the lungs in the long-term. For example, some e-cigarette flavorings may be safe to eat but not to inhale because the gut can process more substances than the lungs.1
• Defective e-cigarette batteries have caused some fires and explosions, a few of which have resulted in serious injuries.
• Children and adults have been poisoned by swallowing, breathing, or absorbing e-cigarette liquid through their skin or eyes. Nationally, approximately 50 percent of calls to poison control centers for e-cigarettes are for kids 5 years of age or younger.