What is Juul? It is a company that sells e-cigarettes, so-called “vaping” cigarettes that have taken on the veil of legitimacy in terms of not creating “smoke,” but rather vapor. However, just because an e-cigarette does not cause 
smoke to be sucked into the lungs (rather, water vapor), it is still a nicotine delivery system. Juul takes the high road but does it matter?
Nationwide, cigarette smoking among teens is down, and that is theoretically good news were it not for the fact that vaping is up. In fact, it is estimated that about 3.5 million minors are “vaping” at the present time.
Physicians and healthcare providers don’t know what the long-term effects of nicotine in the bloodstream will bring, but they do know that nicotine is addictive and that the “pods” containing Juul’s delivery liquid has more nicotine than the average cigarette.
Marketed to kids
Juul’s products have been heavily promoted to young smokers, though heretofore they might have denied it. Not only to the pods resemble “stick drives” but they are flavored in fruit, mango, and cucumber and they are in about 90,000 stores and also marketed online.
The FDA is now placing a great deal of pressure on Juul to stop selling their flavored products. The company has responded by announcing they will temporarily stop selling its flavored pods at retail, and that online sale will not be allowed to anyone under 21.
After the retail stores pull the product, there will be a “cooling off period” and a verification system will be put into place, with restrictions placed on the number of pods that can be purchased at one time to avoid bulk purchases.
Juul, in an effort to curtail social media buzz, will shut down its social media accounts and will “monitor” the third party accounts for what the company terms “inappropriate material,” presumably unsupervised sales and distribution. Most strange is that Juul will keep its Twitter and YouTube accounts, but they will somehow limit access to those accounts for anyone under age 21.
According to the company:
“There is no question that this user-generated social media content is linked to the appeal of vaping to underage users. This is why we have worked directly with social media platforms to remove tens of thousands of inappropriate posts.”
The FDA, clearly seeing the danger of an addictive product has stated:
“We see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion [my italics], and we must adjust certain aspects of our comprehensive strategy to stem this clear and present danger.”
400 + and counting
Estimates of the number of companies selling various forms of vaping pods are about 400. Worldwide, it is higher. In 2016, annual sales of e-cigarettes reached nearly $2.4 billion. It would not be unreasonable to conservatively project that by the end of 2018, sales should be close to $3 billion.
Juul and many other companies are hardly naïve. The industry is not about to fold its tents and go away.
There are huge ethical issues in the play of industry, very much like “Big Tobacco” that knows its product is addictive. It is no big surprise that “Big Tobacco” is also involved in e-cigarette sales.
It is well established that nicotine affects the heart and hormonal systems. As feckless as the FDA has been in shutting down the tobacco lobby, it is proving every bit as incompetent as affecting the e-cigarette industry. In fact, it has become completely ridiculous by banning menthol (tobacco) cigarettes but not banning flavored e-cigarettes.
Anyone with a familiarity with the social media well knows that in theory, use can be restricted to under and over 21, but in practice, it is a virtual joke (every pun intended). There will be a proliferation of private sites and Twitter accounts that will help kids find their way to e-cigarette products.
While Juul may be positioning itself as the industry good guy, a 15-year-old kid hooked on nicotine will find ways to get Juul or any other products. If Juul pulls its flavored pods, then hundreds of other companies will take up the slack.
The opportunity to hook end-users is too great here. No, we may not smell tobacco smoke in schoolyards or find cigarette butts or even smell tell-tale smells on clothes, but the effects on teens (and younger) could be identical. The blame starts at the top, but no one seems in much of a mood to stop it. Juul takes the high road, but does it matter?
