Unfortunately they were still vaping these products and that's still what the media will focus it's attention on. The vaping part, not what they were vaping.
What's even more unfortunate is this will continue to happen for as long as there is a market for it meaning the public perception beating will continue for as long as people keep using the crappy fake cartridges, I doubt this is over by a country mile.
We had that Vice dude pop in about spice found in CBD cartridges in the UK. Not to have to pick a poison but pneumonia sounds pretty good in comparison to getting all whacked out on spice. I like to watch videos of people on that, dont want to be one and there is no such thing as a person on spice who appears to be cool and under control. So now people are going to associate spice users and cannabis users as one whole thing with vaping.
This will make it even easier to demonize and squash without much public outrage. Gotta' save those children from these spice addicted, pothead vapers. I can see the headlines now. Wait until someone eats someone elses face and has a vape in their pocket. Game over at that point.