The governor of Massachusetts declared a public health emergency and temporarily ordered stores to stop selling all vaping products effective immediately. The ban will last four months and comes as a growing number of people are contracting a severe lung disease that has killed at least eight people across the country.
Officials have not identified the specific cause of the disease, but many people who have gotten sick were using black-market cartridges that contain THC.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker says the ban will give medical experts a chance to figure out what is causing the outbreak of the disease and what regulations the government can implement to ensure the products are safe.
“The use of e-cigarettes and marijuana vaping products is exploding, and we are seeing reports of serious lung illnesses, particularly in our young people. The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all sales of vaping products so that we can work with our medical experts to identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents.”
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