New marijuana product called 'wax' often smoked in e-cigarettes

A new marijuana product on the market called Wax (also called Butter and Honeycomb) that is easily disguised and used in e-cigarettes has found its way to Kentucky, Erica Coghill reports for WLKY-TV in Louisville.

It is called "wax" because its yellow color and waxy texture makes it look like earwax, and that makes it easy to conceal because it looks and feels like lip balm, Raychelle Cassada Lohmann writes for Psychology Today.

"Wax" is made from the oils of marijuana plants and has a high level of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes a user high, and while it is easy to make, the ingredients are "highly flammable and dangerous," Lohmann reports.

"What they do is they take marijuana, then take the THC out of it, put it in wax form, stick it in an e-cig, which heats it up, melts it, and you smoke it just like an e-cig, but you get the high off the marijuana," Tim Gividen, Carrollton police officer told Coghill.

"Wax" is much stronger than marijuana,. and can be eaten or smoked. "What's super-scary is that this new substance is equal to smoking 15 to 20 joints and can give a buzz that may last a full day," Lohmann reports.

E-cigarettes are composed of water vapor, flavoring and nicotine.  "You're not going to get the marijuana smell off the smoke, because it is going to be disguised with flavoring, "Gividen told Coghill. Heroin is also being smoked with e-cigs, Coghill said.

Gividen, who patrols schools in Carroll County, learned about "wax" when he confiscated an e-cigarette from a student at Carroll County High School and started asking questions. He found out that it had been popular on the West Coast, but had worked its way across the country.

"Actually, in Trimble County, it has been an issue within their high school, so we know it is something that is surrounding us and a problem," Hayley Franklin, director of Champions For A Drug Free Carroll County, told Coghill.

Gividen and Franklin reminded parents to "keep an eye on their kids and who they're hanging out with, and educate them about the dangers of drugs."

Lohmann suggests that parents keep an eye out for items used in the making of "wax": butane containers, glass/metal tubes, glass baking dishes, isopropyl alcohol and coffee filters.