Another Threat ‘Magically’ Appears
Funded vaping opponents in Malaysia clearly felt that the misinformation they were spreading hasn’t had the desired impact – and so another threat has ‘magically’ appeared
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by Dave Cross
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Funded vaping opponents in Malaysia clearly felt that the misinformation they were spreading hasn’t had the desired impact – and so another threat has ‘magically’ appeared. Pretending that using cannabis is in anyway linked to vaping hasn’t stop people using it for smoking cessation, consequently “doctors” are warning of a new danger: magic mushroom vapes!
The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction says that smoking rates are dropping but remain far higher than in the UK where vaping is embraced as a quit tobacco tool: “There has been a downwards trend in current smoking prevalence in the general population in Malaysia. Smoking prevalence was 29% in 2000 and declined to 22% in 2015, with a further drop to 19% projected by 2025.”
27199 people in Malaysia die from tobacco smoking-related diseases each year
The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction adds: “In Malaysia, vaping devices are technically regulated as electrical appliances. As such, if sold with non-nicotine e-liquids, they can be sold in vape shops. Nicotine-containing e-liquids are classified as a poison (Poisons Act and Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations, 1952) and can only be sold as medicinal products by licensed pharmacies or registered medical practitioners. However, different states have individual laws and restrictions that do not always align with national policy.”
Malaysia Now recently carried an article declaring: “Hospitals are reporting increasing number of patients with mental illnesses associated with vaping.”
An anonymous “doctor in a southern state” told them a patient “came to the hospital for treatment because he could no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy. He sees people's faces on lampposts, he imagines his deceased father when he meets people. He sees objects that he does not know exist.”
Moreover, the doctor is absolutely, totally, utterly convinced that the cause of this is vaping. And to be more precise, vaping a “mushroom flavoured” eliquid. He claims that this is a "magic mushroom" flavour made by extracting the psilocybin from fungi containing that hallucinogen.
These anonymous specialists decrying the use of vape products are still smarting that their misinformation war did not help convince the government to include vapes in a rolling generational ban (such as the one planned for tobacco products in the UK).
They called it a “controversial decision” to exclude vapes from the Poisons List, and say this complicates efforts to end smoking.
A single 15yr old was admitted to hospital having had a seizure and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Naturally, as any doctor would, this was immediately diagnosed as being down to magic mushroom vaping. The patient then became aggressive so was sedated.
Another anonymous doctor said: “There were 15-year-old patients who tried smoking. But since vaping has come along, they are being replaced by those who try vaping. Then they try different flavours, including mushroom. They become addicted and the dose increases when they reach a certain tolerance threshold, so that the normal dose no longer has any effect.”
Some might wonder what these so-called doctors are on?
Some might reply, “a decent stipend from Michael Bloomberg.”
Photo Credit:
Photo by Lorin Both on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
