It seems like there is probably a long history of these cutting agents being extremely toxic. I suppose it makes perfect sense. The person who takes the risk to sell you something illegal doesn't really care about your health.

> seems like there is probably a long history of these cutting agents being extremely toxic

A bit of an understatement, considering literal lead found in ganja (albeit rarely), any kind of dirt in hash, common use of amphetamines instead of psychedelics, and afaik some pretty deadly drugs instead of ‘regular’ opioids. And, I guess, antifreeze in wine if that's not a myth.

On one hand, a dead junkie doesn't buy junk anymore. On the other, the choice is often between selling something today or selling nothing, and apparently the short-term view wins.

There are actually even more unfortunate incentives. When people die from badly cut heroin (especially if from overdosing due to the presence of fentanyl), the bad batch is often incorrectly assumed to be more potent and pure and as such is sought after, causing more deaths.

Further, it’s synthetic. I don’t think it exists in any food sources naturally. Probably shouldn’t be in lung tissue:

“vitamin E acetate, is a synthetic form of vitamin E. It is the ester of acetic acid and α-tocopherol” (Wikipedia)

I'm not sure the addition of white vinegar should be of any particular concern...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa.... - "The substance readily hydrolyses" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_pneumonia

Food safe doesn't mean its aerosol or combustion products are safe to inhale.

Yes, but the ester will probably only affect the hydrophobicity and will be hydrolised at some point. I wouldn't expect vast differences in specifity.