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Even Nobel-Winning Chemists Don’t Know What’s in Your Weed Vape

  • Federal pot ban hinders academics from studying products
  • The lack of options is ‘totally frustrating,’ one expert says
Vape pens sit on display at a cannabis users club Los Angeles.
Vape pens sit on display at a cannabis users club Los Angeles.

Photographer: David McNew/AFP via Getty Images

The vaping health crisis sweeping the U.S. is highlighting how little scientists and health officials know about the marijuana being consumed on a daily basis by millions of Americans.

That lack of research, which stems from a longstanding federal prohibition on marijuana, is becoming a problem for the $10 billion legal weed industry, where vaping products have been the fastest-growing area.