effect so much faster than anything else. but if it s a tainted product, that s when it gets dangerous, even deadly. people are getting hurt. there s been a rash of poisonings from adulterated products. we have seen outbreaks in atlanta, we ve seen them in the mid-atlantic. and so while they re isolated, it s a rash, it s symptomatic of something. something that she began looking into in 2017. these are when she started to hear rumblings about problems with vape pens and cbd. what s one of the places we decided to look for these drug forms. so we started monitoring what people are saying about electronic cigarettes. she started reading online posts and receiving alarming calls from people who thought they had been vaping cbd. it was a little bit scared, heart palpitations, shortness of
poison control, remembers that very first call. one of our specialists said to me, you know what, this is really odd. i have this case, they called me about it and sort of describe that this was supposedly cbd they had vaped. as more calls came in crouch knew something was wrong. it is the nonpsychoactive component of the cannabis plant. so the first thing we said is this is not consistent with cbd. i contacted the health department and said something s going on here. i don t know what it is, this doesn t make sense, but something is going on. everything pointed to the one thing most patients had in common. they had used a counterfeit product labeled yolo, cbd oil, similar to the one jay took. so crouch went to a local smoke shop to obtain an unopened bottle for the police. that gentleman showed me the product, and he asked me what my
injury associated with e-cigarettes is an emergency. we are seeing young people become critically ill and die. reporter: most frightening, eight weeks into the investigation, no one knows exactly why. it s important to say that no single product, substance, brand or additive is linked to all the cases right now. and what is on a label may not actually be what the product is. our guidance is quite simple. don t do it. don t do it because we don t know that it is safe. why did you do it? i didn t think there was any risk in trying about it. i had never heard of anybody having any negative effects from it. so i thought i had nothing to lose. reporter: last year jay jenkins and a friend drove to a convenience store and brought yolo, meaning you only live once, and vaped in.
next thing you know i m not thinking straight, not being able to move. reporter: within seconds, jay lost consciousness and started to have frightening hallucinations. his friend drove him to lexington medical center, where he started having seizures and breathing difficulties. i thought i was in hell and already dead. reporter: so what did cause jay to react so violently? it is what professor michelle piece has been trying to answer. is this the vape lab? reporter: what her lab and others have stone is two-thirds of these products are not what they have seen. some have thc. some have other things. jay jenkins, he had vaped a totally synthetic substance. it had no cbd whatsoever and no way to know who manufactured it. is the cbd supply chain safe? there are pockets or lanes in
i thought i was in hell. that i was already dead. reporter: what caused jay to react so violently. it s what the professor michelle paes is trying to answer. is it the vape lab? originally, we called the vape lab. reporter: what her lab and others have shown, it s not what they seem. some have thc, some have other things. jay jenkins, he had vaped a totally synthetic substance. it had no cbd whatsoever and no way to know who manufactured it. is the cbd supply chain safe? there are pockets or lanes in the supply chain that right now probably cannot be trusted. accident identifying those lanes, good luck. i think for the consumer, you really need to beware right now.