Binky
06-21-2005, 11:25 AM
THAT'S DOPE: MARIJUANA VAPORIZER WITHOUT THE SMOKE
SAN FRANCISCO - The biggest hit on the medical marijuana scene could soon be a high-tech gizmo that lets people inhale the drug but skip the smoke.
The device is a marijuana vaporizer. One version looks like a metallic volcano and sells for more than $500. Its creator calls it "the Mercedes-Benz of vaporizers."
By heating marijuana to a point where vapors are formed but before combustion, a vaporizer is free of many of the toxins found in marijuana smoke, advocates say.
"You don't have the harshness you get from smoking, no next-morning cough, no shortness of breath," said Kathy Gagne, a 56-year-old Oakland resident who began vaporizing marijuana five years ago to treat her depression.
The Bay Area has apparently become the hub of the vaporization movement - from a just-completed UC-San Francisco study on the technology's effectiveness to Alameda County officials' plans to allow the devices in new marijuana dispensaries.
More than a dozen manufacturers have sprung up to churn out the devices.
But federal officials aren't fired up about the vaporizers - or what they deliver.
"Until an application ... is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, marijuana will continue to be classified as a Schedule I ( illegal ) drug," sniffed Jennifer Devallance, spokeswoman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: http://www.mercurynews.com/
SAN FRANCISCO - The biggest hit on the medical marijuana scene could soon be a high-tech gizmo that lets people inhale the drug but skip the smoke.
The device is a marijuana vaporizer. One version looks like a metallic volcano and sells for more than $500. Its creator calls it "the Mercedes-Benz of vaporizers."
By heating marijuana to a point where vapors are formed but before combustion, a vaporizer is free of many of the toxins found in marijuana smoke, advocates say.
"You don't have the harshness you get from smoking, no next-morning cough, no shortness of breath," said Kathy Gagne, a 56-year-old Oakland resident who began vaporizing marijuana five years ago to treat her depression.
The Bay Area has apparently become the hub of the vaporization movement - from a just-completed UC-San Francisco study on the technology's effectiveness to Alameda County officials' plans to allow the devices in new marijuana dispensaries.
More than a dozen manufacturers have sprung up to churn out the devices.
But federal officials aren't fired up about the vaporizers - or what they deliver.
"Until an application ... is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, marijuana will continue to be classified as a Schedule I ( illegal ) drug," sniffed Jennifer Devallance, spokeswoman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: http://www.mercurynews.com/