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IPFS News Link • Drugs and Medications

I-Team: E-Cigarettes, Used to Smoke Marijuana, Spark New Concerns

• nbcnewyork.com, By Ann Givens and Pei-Sze Cheng
 It’s easy these days to spot people smoking electronic cigarettes – the battery-powered, pen-sized inhalers marketed as cleaner alternatives to their traditional tobacco-packed counterparts.

 What may be harder to detect, experts say, is what exactly is inside some of those discreet devices.

 More and more, people are smoking marijuana out of e-cigarettes and vapor pens -- right out in the open with little or no fear of getting caught, users and experts say. 
 
"I was on the train from New York to Baltimore and I enjoyed the pen the whole way there and back with no one noticing," said one life-long marijuana user who asked not to be identified. "I absolutely was thinking 'This is not bad at all.'"
 
Marijuana laws have relaxed nationwide in recent years, with Colorado and Washington legalizing its use and more than 20 other states either allowing it for medical purposes or decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug. Experts say drugs and drug products made for people using marijuana legally are increasingly finding their way to those who are using them illegally.
 
 

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