51ÊÓƵ

Researchers and public-health experts are locked in a debate about whether e-cigarettes should serve as a harm-reduction tool for smokers, as a new generation of young people becomes addicted to nicotine and roughly half a million people in the U.S. die each year of smoking-related causes. New regulations and reports keep fueling the debate, including an editorial in a prestigious academic journal last week that said the prohibitionist vaping bans threaten public health. (Abbott, 12/16)

After new reports of lung illnesses linked to legal THC vapes, cannabis advocates and opponents can agree on one thing: Government officials should give consumers more information about where the dangerous products were purchased. The warnings about vaping, prompted by the national lung injury outbreak the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday has sickened 2,409 and left 52 dead, began with no distinction between nicotine and marijuana-based THC. (O'Donnell, 12/13)

Nearly 2,300 people have been hospitalized since June and 47 people have died from vaping related illnesses. The majority vaped THC derived from marijuana, but some reported vaping nicotine alone. There is no direct connection yet to products produced by the e-cigarette industry leader, San Francisco-based Juul Labs, Inc. But Juul remains the company most directly responsible for the epidemic of youth vaping. (Maa, 12/13)