the suspect told police, <\/a>when she was seeking food scraps in a trash bin and attempted to use one such torch as a flashlight.<\/p>\nBut according to Thomas and other researchers, the devices have also in recent years been melting Portland-area flesh at an alarming rate. It\u2019s a part of a broader pattern they observed in a new study on the links between Oregon drug use and acute burn injuries that shows that\u2014though widely considered safer than injecting drugs\u2014smoking them has perils of its own. <\/p>\n
Between early 2016 and early 2024, they found, 12,304 Oregon Medicaid members were treated for acute burns\u2014four-plus people per day. Notably, people who use smokable drugs comprised more than half of those people\u2014a rate of two acute burns per day\u2014despite making up just 15% of the state\u2019s Medicaid population. <\/p>\n
Thomas says the numbers match what he sees at the city\u2019s go-to burn unit. He describes a common scenario: A man prepares to smoke some fentanyl. The classic Bic lighter may be ready at hand, but it proves less convenient than the torch. (\u201cWe have, you know, a windy environment,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cYou can just leave these things on. You can smoke hands-free.\u201d) Thus, the man turns to his torch. He pulls the trigger and toggles the \u201cflame lock,\u201d securing the trigger in such a way that he can release it but the flame continues to shoot out.<\/p>\n
The flame lights the fentanyl, which does its work. The man dozes off, but the flame continues to burn near, say, a hand or lower leg. The flame burrows into the skin, deeper, deeper, deeper, down to tendon and bone.<\/p>\n
Thomas says the pattern sends burn victims to his operating room with relentless, dark consistency. \u201cWe\u2019ve had three this past week,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Like pretty much every smoke shop in town, ASAP Smoke and Vape on Northeast 8th Avenue stocks on its shelves a diverse array of torches. Fancier ones like the Ion Lite Torch run close to $20, but there are lower price points too.<\/p>\n
The other day, I purchased a \u201cSky Torch\u201d adorned with roses and skulls for $6, and stepped into the balmy warmth outside. It came preloaded with butane, and I pressed the trigger, unleashing the sound of whizzing, pressurized gas, though in the saturated daylight I saw no flame. Thinking my torch might be defective, I drew my finger toward the space where the flame should be, then thought better of it. Later in my living room, it was easier to make out the flame\u2019s blue halo\u2014and within it, a long, sharp and pulsing cone of iridescent blue.<\/p>\n
These devices are not new. A decade ago, torches like these brought innumerable dab rigs at my college aglow. But researchers say they seem to have become more common on the streets of Portland when hard drugs that were usually injected\u2014like heroin\u2014gave way to smokable varieties, from uppers like methamphetamine to downer opioids like fentanyl.<\/p>\n
Thomas has been working for some seven years at the Oregon Burn Center. It was three or four years ago, he says, that he noticed more of the burns were deeper, isolated to a particular patch of flesh\u2014the product of a durable, pointed flame. The wounds were horrific, and he was getting fed up.<\/p>\n
One day last year, he recalls, he was venting in the operating room to an anesthesiologist colleague, who happened to be married to Dr. Honora Englander, an addiction medicine specialist at Oregon Health & Science University.<\/p>\n
Soon, Englander and Thomas were on the phone. \u201cThere was really nothing in the literature about this,\u201d Englander tells WW. They started talking to drug smokers\u2014a population she often sees at OHSU\u2014and examined Oregon Medicaid data for empirical clues as to what was going on.<\/p>\n
The initial fruit of their labor was published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. Titled \u201dBurn Risks Among People Who Use Smokable Drugs in the Era of Butane Torches,\u201d the study found that people who use smokable drugs comprise about 15% of Oregon Health Plan members, but more than 50% of all hospitalizations and emergency department visits for which the plan is billed\u2014suggesting wildly disproportionate burn rates among people who smoke drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really striking number,\u201d Englander says.<\/p>\n
Rates were highest among users of opioids and stimulants in particular. Still, not all of their burns may be attributed to the grisly scenario described above. Some victims touch hot equipment. Sometimes torches simply explode. And it stands to reason that someone addicted to drugs might tend to be less mindful around a flame.<\/p>\n
Also notably, the rate of acute burns\u2014both among the general Medicaid population and the higher rate among consumers of smokable drugs\u2014remained fairly constant in Oregon since 2016, the earliest year the study examined.<\/p>\n
But Thomas says the team is writing another paper that will show the nature of these burns have changed\u2014they\u2019ve been getting more acute and exorbitantly costly, requiring several operations and longer hospital stays. And qualitative data in the initial study supports the hypothesis that butane torches are a major reason why.<\/p>\n
In addition to the data analysis, the study recounts interviews with 19 drug users who primarily smoked fentanyl and methamphetamine. Most carried conventional lighters, noting the low price and the fact that they won\u2019t burn through foil. But all 19 said they use butane torches too.<\/p>\n
One reason was wind. But also, the torches burned hotter, vaporizing the drugs and delivering a \u201ccrisper, cleaner hit.\u201d Another factor was the locking function, which 11 of 19 interviewed reported using at least sometimes. Reasons, the study said, \u201cincluded needing a constant hot flame; wanting hands free; convenience, especially with torches that do not ignite easily; ease of passing torches from person to person; or locking as part of one\u2019s smoking ritual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, many reported instances when the technology had gone horribly awry. \u201cMy friend took a torch\u2026and burned right through his hand,\u201d the study quotes one person as saying. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it\u2026That he didn\u2019t wake up from that, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas sees clear policy remedies. The only reason the injuries are characterized by a long-duration burn on one isolated area is because that locking mechanism remains on while the patient is totally comatose from the fentanyl, so \u201cgetting that locking mechanism off the butane torch would be number one,\u201d he says. Number two would be rules that make the devices less easily available.<\/p>\n
For now, though, Thomas says, he keeps at the recurring task of operating on patients who he doubts will ever be able to fulfill his main objective for them as a doctor: recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so hard,\u201d he says. \u201cThey already had a bunch of issues before. Now it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, now you\u2019re missing an arm.\u2019 How are you going to now recover? You got chronic pain associated with injury. You need services. You\u2019re homeless. You have underlying mental health issues. There\u2019s no way that one expects you to recover from your addiction at this point. I mean, it\u2019s nearly impossible.\u201d <\/p>\n
Correction: This article has been updated to correct Dr. Mark Thomas\u2019s name. WW regrets the error. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Dr. Mark Thomas, a surgeon at the Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-539514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}