The Two Faces of E-(Cigs)

Disguising marijuana use with e-cigs will likely bring more attention to the devices.

“It’s going to be a problem,” said Parker Daniel, an employee at Wild Valley E-cigarette Co. in Fort Worth. “We’ll be smoking this in the car,” he said, referring to a nicotine-filled e-cig, “and a cop will pull us over thinking we’re smoking one of those,” referring to a vape pen containing weed.

Fort Worth Police spokesperson Sgt. Raymond Bush said officers have a hard time distinguishing marijuana vapor from nicotine vapor without weed’s distinct smell. Still, “we’re aware it’s a possibility,” he said.

Unless the container of e-cig liquid is sporting a THC label or some other obvious identifier, police have no way of determining the contents, he said. And unless an e-cig user is otherwise breaking the law, an officer would have no good cause to check on what was being vaped. Bush said that in cities where e-cigs are treated the same as tobacco products, officers will leave users alone as long as they are within the limits of smoking ordinances.

Some places, including Rockwall, have banned the sale of e-cig products to minors. Bush said officers in those cities might question someone who looks underage, but police response is still restricted.

Bush said his department’s narcotics division doesn’t have information to confirm that marijuana use in e-cigs is a significant issue.

“We’re always trying to look at the next trend and get ahead of it when we can, but we need something to work with,” he said.

However, at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, authorities have had more success in catching spiked e-cigs. Assistant Principal Jennifer Fuller, who oversees school safety and operation, said several students have been found with marijuana concentrate in their e-cigs. Trained drug-sniffing dogs detected the supposedly scentless oil.

“The part where they are using hemp oil is a relatively new issue from my understanding,” Fuller said. “With these e-cigs, [the dogs] cannot just smell it sitting in a purse or a bag.”

Associating pot with e-cigs can be bad for businesses like Wild Valley E-cigarette Co. because customers confuse the store with a head shop, Daniel said. E-cig sellers like to keep their image separate from stores selling pipes and bongs.

“You’re either one or the other: You’re either an e-cig shop or a head shop,” he said.

Nick Edwards, employee at Create A Cig e-cig shop in Fort Worth, said he has witnessed customer confusion. Shoppers will come into the store looking for pens designed specifically to handle marijuana, which are sold only at head shops.

“I would say it is a trend,” he said. “We get asked about them all the time.”

Unlike Daniel, Edwards isn’t worried about the mix-up. When customers ask for the specialty pens, Edwards directs them to a head shop down the street.

“People that come in here and ask are new people,” Edwards said. “Our regulars know that our shop is strictly for e-cigs.”

He doesn’t think the mistaken correlation between vape shops and head shops will affect Create A Cig’s reputation.

“We’re not breaking any laws,” he said.

Many head shops sell kits that allow the pens to be used to smoke dry herb. An employee at one such shop, who asked not to be named, said the $40 kit comes with all the tools to get a good high.

He tried it out with one of his regular customers.

“It was huge,” he said of the hit from the e-cig. “I couldn’t even talk for a few minutes. I was just coughing my head off.”

But the customer had less success. “It’s funny because he didn’t get a good hit, and it tasted like popcorn,” the employee said.

The herb pens look similar to liquid pens, which is probably what attracts buyers, he said. “You could be driving, walking down the street … and they might smell something, but it looks like a regular electronic cigarette.”

Texas has no legal cannabis dispensaries. Those who want to use it in e-cigs must buy THC concentrates from underground sources or travel to Colorado or one of the other legal states. As a result, some smokers have begun boiling down leafy weed into liquid concentrate on their own.

Minimal scientific knowledge is needed to turn a sack of weed into a vial of liquid THC. A local man — we’ll call him Walter — showed a Fort Worth Weekly writer how the process works. He plopped a golf ball-sized clump of cannabis into a bowl and soaked it overnight in Everclear.

“The alcohol extracts the oils from the marijuana and puts it into a soluble form of THC,” he said.

The next day he poured the contents through a coffee filter to remove the leaves, stems, and seeds, and collected the greenish-colored liquid in a Pyrex glass to prepare for slow cooking.

“I use an electric burner, which is very important,” he said. “You don’t want to use gas around this [grain alcohol] because it’s very flammable.”

He cooked the solution on medium-low for an hour to evaporate the alcohol and reduce the concentrated THC.

“It’s the same process as making botanical oils,” he said.

Walter has a wife, kids, job, mortgage, and typical responsibilities. He’s smoked weed most of his  adult life because it helps him relax. Used in moderation, it has never affected his ability to function in life, he said. He and a growing number of pot smokers see e-cigs as the perfect way to get high with discretion.

Others, such as the D.A.R.E. regional director, say it’s a trend that needs to be analyzed quickly.

“We haven’t really addressed this issue yet,” Lindsay said. “It’s kind of at the beginning stages.”

Fort Worth Weekly staff writer Jeff Prince contributed to this story.