Founder Joe Tierney says the vaping crisis has led him to believe that there isn’t any safe way to consume the drug

A popular Washington-based cannabis review website is slated to shut down October 1.

“I don’t feel good about the industry any longer,” Joe Tierney, owner and operator of Gentleman Toker, told The Washingtonian.

Although there have been several acquisition offers, the vaping crisis has led Tierney to believe that there isn’t any safe way to consume the drug and that the website will be shut down completely next month.

“I think we’re gonna find out bad things about dabs,” he says. “I think we’re going to find out bad things about edibles.”

He is also skeptical of flower, which he says he can’t recommend to others when there’s so much poor-quality product available. “I don’t think it’s safe to consume cannabis anywhere after all of my travels,” Tierney states.

“Seventy to eighty percent of the products I found were some degree of flawed, from slightly flawed to Oh my god this is horrible,” he says. “The industry as a whole doesn’t have a good handle on the health and safety of these products.”

Tierney felt continuing with the site went against his personal ethics.

“One of my primary motivations is I need to be able to look myself in the eye and know I’m doing good, or at least a net neutral,” he says, after having begged his readers to give up vaping in a newsletter written in early September,

“It is possible there is NO safe vape to consume, and so I must advise you to STOP VAPING RIGHT NOW TODAY STOP IT,” he wrote.

To help with symptoms of depression and anxiety, Tierney used medical cannabis medically for years but became concerned when he started coughing up blood leading him to quit dabbing completely. He feels “enormously better” as a result, although he still consumes a daily joint.

Personally, I’m gonna really miss Joe’s site. He’s been an invaluable independent voice in a very confusing local industry. — Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) September 26, 2019

The Gentleman Toker has been Tierney’s full-time job for several years. “I went from wide-eyed and super excited to put my stamp on a brand new industry to being absolutely disgusted by it,” he says.

“I’m personally not going to contribute to this risk, and it boggles my mind that people could hear all the concerns coming out about all these products and still want them.”

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