2020 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Online > Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team > Heartland

Awarded to

Jonathan Katz, Managing Editor; Eric Sandy, Digital Editor; Melissa Schiller, Senior Digital Editor; Andrea Sparr-Jaswa, Science Editor

Entry details

Vaping-Related Lung Illnesses

Issue or publication date: September 2019 - December 2019
Publication name: Cannabis Business Times
Publishing company: GIE Media
Website home page: cannabisbusinesstimes.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

Cannabis Business Times is owned by GIE Media, based in Valley View, Ohio. CBT’s mission is to help accelerate the success of legal cannabis cultivators by providing actionable intelligence in all aspects of the business, from legislation, regulation and compliance news to analysis of industry trends, as well as expert advice on cultivation, marketing, financial topics, legal issues and more.

CBT focuses strictly on the business of legal cannabis for medical and recreational use and aims to provide timely information—through its website, e-newsletter, mobile app, print magazine and annual conference—to help the reader make timely, informed decisions to help them run their businesses better and more profitably. In 2018, Cannabis Business Times was named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

At the end of the summer of 2019, we began to notice an increase in reports of a mysterious disease afflicting cannabis (and nicotine) vape users. We began to report on the issue from both a business perspective and an emerging science perspective: interviewing dispensary owners on sales trends, cannabis product manufacturers on quality-control standards, pulmonary scientists on the effect of vaporized oil on humans' lungs and state regulators on their public-safety response. Since then, and as of early January, the CDC reports 55 deaths and 2,561 hospitalizations from this new ailment. The CDC confirmed that the primary culprit is vitamin E acetate, often used as thickening agent in popular illicit-market cannabis vape products and the very substance that our early interviews with scientists turned up.

As a team, we followed the story and its consequences throughout the fall of 2019. Our in-depth reporting helped clarify a very confusing situation to our readers, most of whom are navigating the already-complicated day-to-day regulatory environment of the cannabis industry. With serious health risks on the line, we made sure to scrutinize everything we were learning; during this time, we hired a Science Editor to help elevate this type of work. We look forward to continuing the story in 2020.

Links to entry URLs

Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, entries in the Design division categories that are specific to websites, entries in the Website of the Year category, and entries in the Cross-Platform Package of the Year category.

Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/keyword/vaping-related-lung-illness/
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/vaping-lung-disease-science-vitamin-e-acetate-terpenes-questions/
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/supply-chain-risk-management-cannabis-vaping-lung-diseases/
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/vaping-lung-disease-deaths-vitamin-e-acetate-terpenes/
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/the-vaping-crisis-whats-next-cannabis/

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