New fears as wave of smokers are now using E-cigarettes to smoke marijuana in public

By ALEX GREIG
Marijuana smokers are using battery-powered e-cigarettes to smoke marijuana.
E-cigarettes are being touted by manufacturers as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, but officials believe creative smokers are using the the devices to smoke marijuana undetected.
Cannabis, in liquid or wax forms, doesn’t emit the pungent odor that marijuana smoked in plant-form does, making it easy to use the drug with the discreet gadget.
‘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,’ one anonymous marijuana user told NBC.
‘I absolutely was thinking “This is not bad at all.”‘
The portable vaporizers don’t contain tobacco, but instead vaporize liquid nicotine.
Sales of e-cigarettes have soared in the past few years as more and more people take up the gadget, which emits no smoke and little to no odor, in favor of cigarettes.
Vaporizers for cannabis users have been around for a while, but now people are using e-cigarettes for the same purpose – and it’s impossible to tell what exactly someone who is using an e-cigarette in public is inhaling.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that shows the number of middle school and high school students who use e-cigarettes doubled between 2011 and 2012.
Authorities are troubled by the prospect of minors catching on to the trend and graduating from nicotine to marijuana.
As evidenced by the number of YouTube videos instructing smokers on how to doctor an e-cigarette for marijuana use, people are finding ways to use legal products illegally.
To combat e-cigarettes becoming a gateway for other more harmful substances, New York assembleywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced a bill last year making it illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors.
‘Once you try electronic cigarettes, you can become hooked to them, move on to cigarettes and then move on to other drugs,’ Rosenthal told NBC.
Some other states, including New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland, have also banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
There are currently no federal regulations in place for e-cigarettes.
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