The Public Health Cannabis and Vaping Virtual Summit

Source from:  Vapingpost 01/12/2021

The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and Division of Public and Behavioral Health is hosting the Public Health Cannabis and Vaping 3-Day Virtual Summit in partnership with the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. The aim of the event is identifying Nevada’s priorities and strategies related to legal adult-use, public safety, regulation, prevention, treatment and oversight of cannabis and vaping products.

The Executive Director of Partnership Carson City Hannah McDonald and Youth Program Coordinator and Training Specialist Samantha Szoyka will be speaking at the event. Partnership Carson City was originally founded to fight the spread of methamphetamines over a decade ago, and has since then expanded and diversified its causes, organizing amongst other things events and services related to cannabis and vaping prevention.

“Cannabis and vaping, while recreational, have staggering impacts to individuals and their friends and family members,” McDonald said in the release. “At Partnership Carson City we have seen what happens firsthand. During our presentations we will share data on trends as well as provide tips on prevention and treatment.”

The importance of considering e-cigs as smoking cessation tools

Meanwhile, while the summit focuses greatly on the prevention of using vaping products inappropriately, it is important to recognise the products’ effectiveness as smoking cessation tools. The recent Cochrane Review titled, “Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation,” has looked through research in order to evaluate the effect and safety of using electronic cigarettes (ECs) to help people who smoke achieve long‐term smoking abstinence.

The researchers looked through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and randomized cross‐over trials in which smokers were split into two groups (an EC or control condition). The studies (50 completed studies, representing 12,430 participants) included in the review, had to report abstinence from cigarettes at six months or longer and/or data on adverse events (AEs) or other markers of safety at one week or longer.

In line with previous findings, the researchers concluded that EC’s lead to more successful quit attempts. “There is moderate‐certainty evidence that ECs with nicotine increase quit rates compared to ECs without nicotine and compared to NRT. Evidence comparing nicotine EC with usual care/no treatment also suggests benefit, but is less certain.”