An ongoing vaping probe south of the border -- where as many as five people have died and hundreds more have fallen ill -- may slow sales growth in what has been one of the fastest growing categories in the industry, said Jennifer Lee, Deloitte Canada's Cannabis national leader.
"It's an opportunity for the legal producers to say, 'OK, look, our products are tested. We have consistent manufacturing processes.'... Whereas with black market products, who knows what got put into those cartridges," he said. According to 2018 figures in U.S. states which had legalized cannabis for medical or recreational use, these devices were the second-largest category of sales at 21 per cent, behind flower at 46 per cent and ahead of edibles at 11 per cent, according to Deloitte.
But on Monday, the American Medical Association was the latest health authority to sound the alarm on vaping, urging people to avoid using the products until more information is known. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that "many" of these patients reported recent use of products containing THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, a compound found in cannabis that produces a high and urged consumers to steer clear of vaping until their probe is complete.