Marijuana vape sales can resume, CCC declares

BOSTON — State marijuana regulators on Thursday eased their ban on vaping product sales, allowing certain types of products to return to store shelves one day after state public health officials backed off a ban on nicotine vape sales.

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, the Cannabis Control Commission permitted licensed marijuana retailers to sell devices that vaporize marijuana flower for medical marijuana patients and non-medical users, devices that are used to vaporize marijuana concentrate but do not actually contain any marijuana themselves, and vaporizer cartridges that are manufactured beginning Thursday and pass a screening for contaminants like vitamin E acetate.

Still off-limits are any vaping products manufactured before Thursday that contain marijuana, meaning retailers cannot sell any vape cartridges that they have been holding in quarantine.

Marijuana vaping products have been unavailable to consumers since September, when Gov. Charlie Baker imposed a temporary ban on the sale of any vaping product amid a national outbreak of vaping-related lung disease, including three deaths in Massachusetts. When a judge ruled the CCC is the only agency that can regulate marijuana vapes, the CCC put in place an indefinite quarantine of all vaping products.

The prohibition was first imposed to allow public health officials to glean more about what is causing some people who vape to come down with serious lung illnesses. [Read More @ Gloucester Times]