Fake vape cartridges: is your vape cartridge real or fake?

In September 2019, dozens of people in the Midwest and California fell sick from vaping e-cigs or cannabis products. This underscores the caution of consumers Vaping Manufacturers and retailers now have to consider where and how their vaping products are made.

In the vape and marijuana industry, vape technology has long posed serious health and safety concerns. The Associated Press reported on September 13, 2019 that around 380 confirmed and probable cases of severe respiratory illness were reported in 36 states after patients smoked nicotine or marijuana oil vapes. Six of the patients died.

This public health situation has forced popular marijuana companies to protect customers by designing and reviewing authentic products and preventing potentially dangerous counterfeits.

With vape technology so new, the long-term health effects are unclear. Disposable cartridges are the fastest growing method of consuming CBD oils and e-liquids.

This recent development, much like the advent of vaping itself, has led researchers to discover the long-term health effects of vaping with them.

Many states that have legalized marijuana are still defining their testing requirements. Lack of knowledge about vapes has led many marijuana users to question the safety of their vapes Vape cartridges and the industry must take steps to reassure them if they are to continue adopting this trend.

Credit for Photo at ecigclick.co.uk

What is inside? a Vape liquid cartridge?

While there are many vaporizers that can be used to consume dry herb and wax concentrate, the most popular device appears in electronics Evaporator is the portable pen design. Vape pens are used to vape e-liquids, hemp oil, and distillates.

The vape pen consists of two main components: a battery and a vape cartridge. The battery forms the bottom of the vape pen and supplies power to the heating element, which turns the e-juice or oil from the vape pen cartridge into vapor.

Most vape oil manufacturers will state the voltage that is compatible with the cartridge you choose. These devices come in many different shapes, styles, and sizes.

Some vape pens have buttons to activate the vape cartridge, while others have no buttons and are not activated until the user inhales them.

The cartridge contains a mouthpiece, a combustion chamber, and a heating element called an atomizer. The chamber is filled with an e-juice or a cannabinoid and terpene-rich CBD oils that are either CBD- or THC-dominant and contain terpenes.

Upon contact with the battery, the atomizer is activated, which heats the chamber and vaporizes the oil.

The cannabis oil that fills the steam cartridges is usually made through a process called distillation, which just breaks the marijuana molecules down into cannabinoids.

So what about the distinctive flavors defined by the terpene signature in the aroma of fresh marijuana flowers? All of these are removed during the distillation. Some hemp oil producers collect terpenes from marijuana and later reintroduce them into the oil, which gives the carton filled with distillate its taste. Terpenes used to flavor distillates are more often derived from other natural plants.

Photo credit: engadget.com

Are there any contaminants in vape oil cartridges and pens?

The most common problem in the illegal vape market is focusing on containing high levels of pesticides. Inhaled pesticides can cause health problems if consumed in concentrated form. To ensure that vape cartridges do not contain harmful pesticides, it is important that you shop with established brands that disclose third-party test results and include pesticide screening.

Cutting agents can be added to improve the strength and overall taste of the vapor. These are the common cutting agents that are sometimes mixed with hemp oil and e-cigarette vape juice. This includes:

1. Polyethylene glycol (PEG): A cutting agent used in VAPE liquids to evenly mix the product.

2. Propanediol (PG): A binder that is added to cannabis vape cartridges because it allows for even vape draw.

3. Vegetable glycerine (VG): Added to the vape liquid to create larger clouds for the user.

4. Vitamin E acetate: Often used as a safety additive in food, but has been found in thickeners in illegal THC cartridges in some reported diseases. Vitamin E acetate is a different chemical from vitamin E that is found naturally in foods and supplements. Vitamin E can be safely consumed as a food or up to 1000 mg daily.

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified the cutting agents as safe for human consumption, there are questions about what happens when the compounds are inhaled. A 2010 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that inhaling PG could potentially worsen asthma and allergies. Other studies have shown that PEG and PG break down into the carcinogens formaldehyde and acetaldehyde when evaporated at high temperatures.

A growing number of hemp oil producers insist they don’t add cutting agents to their products.

If you are concerned about the potential dangers of these cutting agents, look for raw products that contain only marijuana distillates and marijuana-derived terpenes.

It’s not just marijuana oil that is contaminated. In the 2018 study conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, the researchers found that levels of lead of toxic metals, including lead, leaked from the heating coils of some ecigs and seeped into the inhaled vapor. While the FDA continues to work to properly manage e-cigarettes and vape pens, it is up to the vape cartridge manufacturers and testing laboratories to catch potentially dangerous products.

Many vape cartridges are made in metal founders in China, many of which brass and copper materials add small amounts of lead to brass to increase the ductility of the metal. These include heating coils that heat hemp oil and potentially transfer toxic metals into consumer fumes.

How did counterfeit steam get into the market?

Counterfeit vapes are widespread in the market for several reasons. Money is the main reason and the most obvious one. Some retailers like the fact that they can buy counterfeit products at low prices. Hence, they can sell fake branded products at low prices. That way, they can weaken the market. Counterfeiters sell their junk in every possible way so some traders won’t even know they are selling counterfeit products and can easily be tricked into buying fakes if all they care about is price when looking for suppliers.

A large number of products on the market so it is easy to pass a fake as the real one as new products are introduced almost daily which allow scammers to replicate them before consumers can learn to tell the difference. Without laboratory testing of the contents of a vape cartridge, it is very difficult to tell if the oil is counterfeit, as many cannabis oil and e-liquid manufacturers have proactively tried to help consumers determine if the cartridges they are buying are genuine or not are wrong.

How to tell if a vape cartridge is legal or counterfeit

With the popularity of Vape pensThe number of fake CBD and THC refills has increased. Several well-known brands have fought counterfeit cartridges. Some customers can easily mistake the real cartridges for the counterfeit ones as the logo, brand and packaging of these counterfeit cartridges are almost identical to the logos, brands and packaging of these leading brands.

Check the dealer license

Some retailers have valid licenses. However, other stores may sell products under applicable regulations.

Although a regulated market for cannabis oils increases prices, it is far safer. For this reason, it is important to check that your dealer has the correct license to sell your product.

If you don’t see the license number, the store may be selling fakes from the black market. The shop may not follow the current rules. In any case, it is not worth trusting this source. You can check the store’s license for yourself. However, it is equally important to review the product that you are purchasing. If something goes wrong, it could be a counterfeit vape oil cartridge.

Check out the unique branding of the product. Some may also have QR codes for you to review.

Even if you shop in a regulated market, you might end up with a counterfeit cartridge. For this reason, you should check the product packaging to make sure it is legal.

If you are buying from a regulated market in California you should see the label:

The date of manufacture

Batch number

The packing date

Labeling requirements vary from state to state. However, there should be some sort of regulation on the labels of cannabis products. Do not buy cartridges that came with the box. If you suspect a cartridge you bought is counterfeit, visit the manufacturer’s website and see if they have a QR code or an authenticated system with a serial number. If not, a quick internet search for a specific brand can help you determine if the brand has an established reputation for making quality products.

Check the price

If you’re only paying $ 10 or $ 15 for a 1/2 gram vape cartridge, it probably isn’t very good. That doesn’t mean it is a fake, but in order to make a profit at that price, they have to improve the quality of the cartridge and its contents

You should pay at least $ 25 for a good 1/2 gram vape cartridge.

Check if the oil is liquid

If the oil is still liquid, the cartridge should contain a high percentage of THC Almmsblocken. The higher the THC content, the thicker the oil, and above 60% the oil should not be liquid.

Getting a cartridge high in THC is not always a good thing. The higher the THC content, the more processing it took to extract them. This results in the need for additional terpenes to be added to replace the process lost through the extraction. It also requires more cutting units to dilute the oil so that it can better evaporate.

Anything over 50% will still get you high enough. Tip the cartridge over and see how visual the oil is.

You get big clouds

If you are getting huge clouds of vapor from your cannabis vape pen, this should be an indicator that something has cut it. While the e-cig guys like huge clouds, vaping cannabis concentrate shouldn’t create a huge cloud of vapor. This is often and indicates that it has been cut with PG, which, as we discussed earlier, can break down to formaldehyde.