Prof. Andrew Hathaway, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, spoke to New York magazine’s The Cut about the sudden interest in vaping-associated pulmonary illnesses and their link to THC vape products.

Hathaway, who researches drug use and Canadian drug policy, noted that vaping pens for cannabis are especially attractive to marijuana newcomers since they allow non-traditional pot users to try the drug “without the fear of smoke-related harm.”

But he also wonders whether many people are overreacting to the reports of deaths linked to vaping, saying the current media and public health attention “has the markings of a moral panic.”

Hathaway’s research on cannabis spans more than a decade and focuses on the use of marijuana both for medical conditions and the broader normalizing trends of cannabis consumption.