The dx4 vaporizer gun is the latest casualty in the war on drugs. The dx 4, like other vaporisers, can be used to  smoke tobacco, and it’s especially favoured for use with flavoured tobaccos, rather like those smoked in hookah pipes. As hookah smoking is gaining in popularity, so are vaporizers like the dx4.

OK, so far so good. But the problem is that the dx4 and similar vaporisers also can be used to smoke illegal substances, like marijuana or hashish. They are thus "dual use" items in the technical jargon. And this is where the controversy over things like the dx4 comes in.

If someone buys a vaporiser to smoke tobacco, this is clearly legal, both to buy and to sell. If someone buys it to smoke pot, well, it’s the smoking of the pot that’s illegal, but is the selling of the equipment to enable them to do so also illegal?

Currently the law is a little confused. If it’s knowingly sold for pot smoking, yes, illegal. But what if the buyer lies about why they want a dx4?

Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee said Tuesday he hopes to force what he
asserts to be a downtown drug paraphernalia shop, Old School, to
operate within the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) by filing a civil
complaint in Malheur County Circuit Court.

The difference of opinion
may boil down to a few key words in the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS).
The civil complaint asserts Miller sold, delivered and possessed with
intent to sell numerous products constituting drug paraphernalia.

And that’s what the problem is all about: how do you determine intent when someone buys a legal product? As to why someone might want a vaporiser like the dx4, here it is:

Vaporizer guns are increasingly popular among people who want to smoke but don’t want the toxic by-products from the burning plant. A vaporizer gun may be used to smoke tobacco or any number of herbs or plants, including marijuana.
With alternative medicine attracting more and more followers, a vaporizer or vaporizer gun can possibly be an effective way to deliver the benefits of many herbal and plant remedies.
As this article on the Web site Vapornation says, vaporizers produce little if any smoke while creating enough heat to release the substances in tobacco or other plant or herb products, but not reaching the temperature at which the plant matter burns.
The article says that "the active compounds contained in the plant melt and phase into an aromatic vapor, not smoke. This vapor ideally contains reduced amounts of particulate matter and carcinogens."

You get the THC but not the carcinogens, the nicotine but not the burning.