LD50 (median lethal dose) of THC is 800 mg/kg. A 175 lb person would need to consume 63.50 grams of pure THC to reach that threshold. Good bud is ~20% THC. Hash oil is usually around 70% THC. Distillate is up to 99%. So, it sounds like eating two ounces of distillate would be a very bad - and very expensive - idea, but I doubt anyone would do it on purpose or by accident. Even that would only give you a 50% chance of dying.
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Republican-Level Sciencing from the Anslinger School of Wacky Tebaccy Studies
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Lipid pneumonia is a real possibility.
https://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2018-224350.full
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Given the…notably rigorous…standards to which vape fluids are held there are probably a wide variety of nasty possibilities; it’s just that you’d want the guy whose job it is to determine cause of death to pick up on those. And, to the degree that we keep coroners around to warn us about patterns or worrisome causes, rather than just satisfy our curiosity; it’s exactly an unusual conclusion like this where the most rigorous attention and careful analysis would be warranted.
If the verdict were opiate induced respiratory depression that would be unfortunate; but not exactly news from either a toxicology or product safety perspective. If, as here, the verdict implies either a very exotic risk or a major product safety issue; that’s exactly when the coroner’s job is most important; and needs to be done most carefully and exhaustively.
If the decedent’s alveoli are in a state that has hardened histologists swearing under their breath; that could certainly be evidence that whatever they vaped disagreed with them and induced fatal breathing problems. Of course if that were the case you could just say so; maybe with ‘pictures’ rather than this fiasco.
Similarly, if the problem is that someone’s ‘THC oil’ turns out to have been a creative approach to low cost disposal of dioxinlicious used transformer oil; that’s also an anomaly that can be inferred from available evidence.
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I can see “results we’ve found,” or “readings we’ve recorded” or “measurements we’ve made.” But “readings we’ve found” sounds like they found a test report in the corpse’s stomach.
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Always go with your gut, no?
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In that case I doubt the culprit is PG or VG. These are absorbed easily by the body. PEG is used as a solvent to help break down oil, and it is supposedly absorbed similarly by the body, but it also comes in a bunch of viscosities, and I can’t say for sure if that would affect absorption. However, MCT oil is highly suspected of being able to cause lipid pneumonia. There are arguments that say that it also is absorbed by the body quickly enough to not build up, but it’s debatable.
I will not touch MCT oil for vaping. I even own a company that works in this space and we don’t offer MCT-based vaping stuff for that reason.
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I dunno. There is really not much incentive to alter vape juice beyond the normal stuff, which is cheap and plentiful. It’s propolyne glycol or vegetable glycerin (and polyethylene glycol in cannabis vape stuff sometimes), nicotine or cannabis oil, and food flavors. Apart from hash oil, it’s all really cheap stuff. There’s really no reason to get creative, other than with flavors.
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nutmeg. don’t even try. it’s a killer
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Oh well in that case
This actually jibes with my own experience. It’s frustrating but it’s nice to have a safe clear signal that you probably need to cut back on weed consumption or take a tolerance break.
Nicotine’s actually fairly toxic…
But yeah, as my pharmacology professor used to say “the only difference between a medicine and a poison is dose”. But then we also learned about LD50’s and margins of safety…
There are some things that even approaching the LD50 is damn near physically impossible just due to the sheer quantity that would need to be consumed.
But, keeping that in mind, people do die from overconsumption of water (and not in the drowning sense).
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Parsley is toxic at high doses, especially for pregnant women, colud cause abortion and mess with the liver.
Nutmeg is neurotoxic and causes excitation.
Tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants contains glycoalkaloids that are toxic and so on…
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Where’s Quincy ME when we need him?
Seriously, this is tantamount to negligence. Failing to investigate/establish a real likely cause of death means there is a risk something happened that people need warning about - but we’ll never know. This person needs to be fired, stat.
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Did you see the John Oliver bit on coroners? Linked further up thread, worth checking out. Really awful!
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Not looked at video but did read Guardian article. Seems our views are aligned. Making coroners political/elected positions is just plain dumb. (But then I never understood how it was even vaguely sensible to elect senior operational police officers, either. Electing non-operational people who supervise/oversee police departments is one thing, but operational…? Really?)
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I whish it wasn’t. I fondly remember the days where content was lower.
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I don’t know about street weed, but we’re gagging on choice here in Washington.
At the stores I go to, there are strains going all the way up to 28% THC with practically no CBD. But I also see strains going as low as 16%. There’s also high CBD strains that go up to 10-15% CBD with no appreciable THC content, and “balanced” strains with 12-18% THC and 2-5% CBD.
Plus about a million different concentrated and infused products.
Just saw THC infused Sriracha the other day.
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A good budtender should be able to point you to friendly products. There are CBD-dominant strains that have a low-to-moderate THC content. There are also strains (terpene and cannabinoid profiles, really) that can help with anxiety and other side effects of THC.
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You 'n me both.
Monegut: “Definitely. Wink wink.”
WWLT: “Did you just say ‘wink wink’?”
Monegut: “Definitely not. Wink.”
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