Demand for vaping products in legal U.S. recreational states has slipped anywhere from 5% to 25% month over month in the wake of a string of lung illnesses linked to vaping, an analyst says, adding that U.S. marijuana stocks like Greenlane (GNLN) and KushCo Holdings (KSHB) that depend on vapes for a large portion of sales were among the most exposed.

However, the analyst, Canaccord Genuity's Bobby Burleson, said in a research note on Monday that the respiratory illnesses were likely to more quickly steer customers away from the illicit pot market.

"In our view, recent reports of acute respiratory illness linked by regulators to THC vaping (and e-cigarettes) should ultimately accelerate the shift away from the black market for cannabis products in the US," he wrote.

Near-term impact overall on THC vape demand, he said, was "mixed." He said medical dispensaries were largely unaffected. In states where recreational pot is legal, he said, the drop in vape demand had been largely counterbalanced by higher sales in edibles, joints and other weed products.

As of this week, nine people in the U.S. have died from the vaping-related illnesses. Investigators haven't yet pinned down an exact cause. Five-hundred and thirty illnesses have been reported across 38 states since April. The FDA at that time first launched an investigation into seizures that might have been related to vaping.

Caveats To Vaping Threat

Investigators looking into the deaths and illnesses have focused, in part, on vaping products — including those that contain THC — acquired on the illicit market. New York state has homed in on products that contain vitamin E acetate, sometimes used as a thickener. Vaping startup Juul faces a federal criminal probe in California.

Burleson also said officials in Oregon were looking into whether one vaping-related death there might have been linked to purchases in legal cannabis shops.

"While we are likely early days in resolving these industry challenges, longer term we expect associated revenue and EBITDA impact to our vape-related coverage names to be more modest than the sell-off suggests," Burleson said. EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

He also noted that "vape is a lower margin business and THC vaping illnesses have largely been a black market phenomenon (with the exception of one case)."

U.S. Marijuana Stocks Exposed

The scope of the investigations has widened along with vaping's popularity — both for tobacco and marijuana.

Burleson said that Greenlane, a distributor of vaping devices, drew around 80% of its sales last year from vaping products. Greenlane had its IPO earlier this year.

TILT Holdings, the product of a multi-company merger across the U.S. and Canada, gets 77% of sales from vapes. For KushCo, a distributor of a variety of supplies for the cannabis industry, vaping accounted for 69% of sales.

KushCo earlier this year also had to deal with tariffs on vaping products and other supplies it gets from China.

KushCo, which trades over the counter, tumbled 11% in the stock market today. The stock has fallen for much of the year. Greenlane sank 10.5%.

Similar to other marijuana stocks, Greenlane stock gets weak ratings from IBD. It has a 4 Composite Rating, of a best-possible 99, and a 5 EPS Rating.

Canadian Marijuana Stocks

As the U.S. tries to contain the vaping illnesses, Canada is gearing up to allow legal sales of vaping products and other products, like beverages and edibles, later this year. Currently, Canada allows the sale of dry buds, joints, tinctures and capsules.

Among Canadian marijuana stocks, Cronos Group (CRON), which has said it plans to make vaping a focus, fell 8.6%. Canopy Growth (CGC) lost 6.2%. Aurora Cannabis (ACB) sold off 6.3%. Tilray (TLRY) gave up 5.2%. Aphria (APHA) sank 5.8%.

China plans to join governments that are imposing controls on tobacco liquid and additives for e-cigarettes amid rising concern about deaths and illnesses blamed on vaping, a state news agency said Tuesday.

Rules due out as early as next month also will cover e-cigarette devices and packaging, the China News Service said, citing unidentified sources at the State Tobacco Monopoly. The monopoly didn’t immediately respond to requests by phone for more details.

India banned sales of e-cigarettes this month and regulators in the United States and other countries are imposing controls following a surge in deaths and illnesses blamed on vaping.

Makers of e-cigarettes including Juul Labs Inc. have promoted them as being safer than standard cigarettes, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says no vaping product has been reviewed and found to be less harmful than traditional tobacco products.

China is the most populous global tobacco market, with an estimated 350 million smokers. India is No. 2.

Companies in the Chinese e-cigarette industry invested at least 1 billion yuan ($140 million) in 2018 year and 35 deals were made in the first half of this year, according to CNS.

China banned sales of e-cigarettes to people under 18 in August 2018.

In July, the country’s National Health Commission said studies showed the aerosol generated by e-cigarettes contains toxic elements and additives pose health risks, according to CNS.

In Other Countries

In the United States, health officials are investigating a surge of severe breathing illnesses linked to vaping. They have identified 380 confirmed and probable cases, including six deaths.

U.S. doctors say the illnesses appear to be a response to the inhalation of a caustic substance. Symptoms have included shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, diarrhea and vomiting.

This month, the state government of New York banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

With a flood of mysterious lung diseases grabbing global headlines and the U.S. moving to ban flavoured e-cigarettes, the ability to vape is quickly evaporating from some markets.

But will the rush to prohibit the products do more harm than good?

In the U.S., eight people have already died from a lung disease connected to vaping and hundreds more have fallen ill, prompting intervention by the highest levels of government.

India, the world’s second-largest consumer of tobacco behind only China, is in the process of completely banning vaping. With more than 900,000 people dying yearly from tobacco-related illnesses, the country’s health ministry noted it felt compelled to act before it became an epidemic among its youth.

But a rush to ban vaping altogether will likely just push more consumers to the black market where the bigger problems lie, said David Hammond, a public health professor at the University of Waterloo in southwestern Ontario. “I don’t think prohibition would make sense. If you prohibit it, you might increase cases of contaminants because you don’t get chance to apply proper standards to products,” Hammond said.

The billion-dollar question, yet unanswered, is what is making consumers sick. “People suspect a contaminant because we all of a sudden saw a big number of cases,” Hammond said. “Like food illness outbreaks, cases clustered together suggest something with the supply chain.”

The most recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that most, but not all, cases of illness in the U.S. involved THC and not nicotine. With researchers turning their focus to the presence of Vitamin E as a potential problem in the process, consumers are just tired of the uncertainty.

“People are frustrated by not having enough information,” Hammond said. “But there is no doubt that THC products are widely implicated, with some products purchased outside of the legal market,” he added.

Until the cause is determined, Hammond recommends only vaping dried cannabis and avoiding products from the black market. “For the most part, risks are reduced through good manufacturing. I expect that to remain true. But there may be a question mark at end of that statement now,” he said.

“Health Canada should also be taking a good look at its product standards to make sure we aren’t just saying ‘good luck’ to companies that are trying to make sure their products are not harmful.”

Hammond anticipates that the popularity of vaping will bounce back once the source of the contaminant is discovered because it is safer than smoking cigarettes and is far more convenient. “Vaporizing is ready when you are. It doesn’t smell, it’s easy to conceal and use unobtrusively and you get the immediate effects of smoking compared to edibles. It checks a lot of boxes,” he said.

“This scare is the big unknown. It all depends on how this is resolved,” Hammond said.

Eyes are the window to the soul, the lamp to the body, and our own personal portals to the outside world – learn how cannabis can help us maintain our vision.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have to delve into the importance of vision. Just like breathing, it’s one of those background physiological functions that’s always serving us. Although we don’t actively think about the process of “seeing”, it’s something we do from the moment we open our eyes at birth. And it’s something that’s readily noticed (and particularly worrisome) when there is some sort of visionary malfunction.

Excellent vision is considered 20/20 – which refers to the size of the letter at 20 feet away from the eye chart. Surprisingly, only 35 percent of all adults have 20/20 vision without glasses, surgery, or other means of correction. Generally speaking, visual acuity develops at around six months of age and remains stable throughout the adult years. Some kids develop nearsightedness at age 8 or 9 years, and some adults experience age-related vision loss starting around age 60.

As we age, our eye’s lenses become less flexible, making it more difficult to focus on small, close objects – like words on the page of a book, for example. But aside from a touch of nearsighted vision, there are certain vision disorders that become more common as we age, two of the most common ones being glaucoma and macular degeneration.

There are some limited treatment and surgical options available, but unfortunately, many are quite invasive and can only manage the symptoms for so long. People are looking for fresh new options to deal with their vision disorders, and cannabis keeps coming up as a promising one. But is there any science to back up this claim? Let’s take a look.

Cannabis and Glaucoma

We’ll start with glaucoma, a condition that’s long been linked to cannabis.  Glaucoma is one of the most common uses for medical cannabis and was once a condition that had federal government approval for “compassionate marijuana use”.  Glaucoma is not a specific disease, per se, but rather a group of conditions that contribute to vision loss and blindness.

Research dates back all the way to the 1970s indicating that THC can reduce intraocular pressure, a key factor in the development of glaucoma. A study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology clearly states that “Cannabinoids (specifically THC) have the potential of becoming a useful treatment for glaucoma, as they seem to have neuroprotective properties and effectively reduce intraocular pressure.”

However, that same study also points to various challenges such as unwanted cognitive effects, the development of a tolerance, difficulty in formulating a topical eye solution, and the fact that effects only last 3-4 hours, so whatever cannabis delivery method is used, it will need to be utilized 6-8 times per day.

According to Henry D. Jampel, MD, MHS, the Odd Fellows Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, “The take-home message is that although marijuana can lower the eye pressure, recommending this drug in any form for the treatment of glaucoma at the present time does not make sense given its side effects and short duration of action, coupled with a lack of evidence that its use alters the course of glaucoma.”

Ok, so that’s the low-down on THC and glaucoma; but what about its non-psychoactive cousin CBD? As it turns out, that’s also not a viable option either. A 2018 study from the University of Indiana discovered that CBD increased the intraocular pressure of lab mice. Interestingly, this negative effective was twice as prevalent in male mice compared to females.

“This difference between males and females — and the fact that CBD seems to worsen eye pressure, the primary risk factor for glaucoma — are both important aspects of this study,” said Senior Research Scientist, Alex Straiker. “It’s also notable that CBD appears to actively oppose the beneficial effects of THC.”

Cannabis and Macular Degeneration

The macula is the central part of the retina and it’s responsible for focusing the central vision of the eye. As the macula deteriorates, the patient develops a blind spot in the center of their vision – although peripheral vision would remain intact. In terms of visual impact, it’s opposite of the “tunnel-vision” effect associated with glaucoma.

Many standard treatments involve injections – in the eye – that are expected to halt the growth of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). But these treatments often come with various unwanted side effects, and of course, some people just aren’t too keen on sticking a needle directly into their eyes anyway (you can count me on that list).

Interestingly, researchers studying the effects of cannabinoids on brain tumors inadvertently found that they also blocked and inhibited VEGF pathways throughout the body. They found that THC was “especially effective at targeting VEGF progression”

Another theory connecting cannabis to macular degeneration is relating to the plant’s use as an anti-inflammatory, CBD in particular. Inflammation stemming from certain conditions, particularly diabetes or endotoxin exposure, is often a precursor of macular degeneration.

Keep in mind that while this all does sound very promising, these are all theories, since there have been no official studies on cannabinoid treatments and macular degeneration.

Looking Forward

If you ask any medical professional what their thoughts are on using cannabis to treat vision disorders, you will likely get a resounding “no” answer. And this is definitely not because there is no basis to the idea that it could be beneficial, but at this particular moment, the concrete evidence just isn’t there.

It’ll be exciting to see what the future holds in terms of studies and research, since new and less invasive treatment options for eye patients are in high demand. However, until there is more science, it’s best to err on the side of caution – your vision is nothing to play around with.

What are your thoughts on using cannabis to treat a vision disorder? Has it been beneficial for you? If so, we’d love to hear what you think! Drop us a line in the comment section below.