THC-Lung patient claims ABC News LIED about his illness being related to flavored vapes by Matt Rowland

When a local ABC news reporter in Amarillo, Texas, ran a story last week on the current vaping-related lung scandal, it garnered instant anger and disgust from the patient being highlighted in the interview. Not only was the news segment filled with falsehoods and inaccurate information, the reporter, LaMyiah Harvel, wrongly claimed that the patient - Benjamin Camarillo – is a user of both marijuana and flavored nicotine vapes.

Mr. Camarillo is among the growing number of THC-vapers suffering from a mysterious respiratory ailment that is purportedly responsible for perhaps twelve deaths nationwide. He is also a military veteran suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. For Benjamin, legalized cannabis has been truly life-saving.

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With all the negative headlines about vaping swirling about on social media in recent months, Camarillo felt it was his duty to advocate for legalized marijuana, especially for military veterans like himself. So, when Harvel of KVII News Channel 7 in Amarillo came knocking, he was only too happy to take part in the interview. In a YouTube video with the owner of a local vape shop, 806 Vapes, who also appears in the ABC segment, Camarillo stated the following.

“I tried to get in some advocacy for the vets, you know, for the Texas vets who get discarded like they’re not important. I still believe 100% in the marijuana industry in general. I believe people need access to that plant. Especially the vets. And when I tried to put a word out on that in the Channel 7 story, they didn’t make one single mention of it. From the second I went in, I told them that all I vaped was THC because of my PTSD. I do not vape any nicotine. And they ran with the story they went with and it was totally wrong.”

Here’s the problem. Camarillo says that he told Harvel that he had only ever vaped cannabis products. He had never used nicotine-based e-liquids in his life – not even once. Yet, somehow, the reporter seems to have twisted the facts. In the televised version of the interview, Harvel is heard saying that Camarillo is a dual user of both products.

Mainstream media consistently lies about the ‘vaping-related’ health crisis

The wide-ranging news report includes additional interviews with a local pulmonologist, Dr. Mark Singler, and the owner of 806 Vapes Shop in Amarillo, Chris Goodwin. In the televised version of the segment, both Singler and Goodwin claim that THC-vaping is the most likely cause of Caramillo’s respiratory disorder. Yet, according to a video voiceover by the reporter, the physician also claims that “the city has had several cases that may be associated with nicotine vaping, but none have been confirmed.”

To be clear, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attribute a single case to the vaping of nicotine-enhanced e-liquids. Almost 90 percent of all cases reported to the CDC so far are directly linked to the vaping of THC-infused substances. Period. This evidence is supported by a CDC press release of October 3 and a similar public statement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published last Friday.

Related Article: CDC finally agrees Black Market THC -not nicotine – primary cause of vaping crisis

Yet, instead of pushing the real facts behind the marijuana vaping crisis, the Harvel segment continuously implies over and over again that flavored vapes are equally as hazardous to one’s health as cannabis-based oils. When Camarillo and the owner of 806 Vapes Shop saw themselves on the news, they were understandably outraged.

They decided to join forces and create a YouTube video that expresses their collective indignation. One of the opening lines in the Vlog is, “News Channel 7? You should be ashamed of yourself.”

They then travel through the entire TV segment, line-by-line, and clarify how their statements and other pertinent information are intentionally misrepresented or deceptively misreported. We encourage all Vapes.com readers to share the above video on social media. Perhaps we can get it to go viral.

Related Article: Former CDC official: Agency’s refusal to warn of ‘THC vaping’ likely contributed to rising death toll

(Image courtesy of YouTube, Facebook, and KVII News Channel 7)