Here’s Everything You Need To Know About the Juul Flavor Ban
Chances are, you probably know someone who juuls. Maybe they do it in the back of the classroom when the teacher isn't looking, or between periods in a bathroom stall. Maybe, when you head to a party on the weekend you're trying to brush away smoke as you make your way through the basement full of juulers. Or maybe you're a juuler yourself.
According to the New York Times, more than three million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes, a market controlled by the vaping company Juul Labs, so yeah, you probably know someone who juuls.
Juul was initially designed as a tool to help smokers quit smoking, since the devices don't include tar or deadly carcinogens. What the company claims to not have expected, however, is that teens across the country would get addicted to nicotine by using the flash drive-looking vapes. Attracted to the devices because of their flavors like blueberry, latte, and watermelon, teens quickly glommed on to the juuling trend, and suddenly, they were everywhere.
Well, the Food and Drug Administration caught on to this, claiming Juul was marketing to youth, using social media marketing, as well as its various flavors to appeal to young adults. As the FDA continues to investigate Juul's marketing strategy, the company has agreed to suspend its social media marketing as well as the sale of flavored pods in retail stores, leaving the mint, tobacco, and menthol flavors still available, among a few others.
As Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts said, "Much of the damage has already be done." You go on Instagram and every other photo shows a young girl or boy with a Juul in hand. “Now that it has captured 75 percent of the e-cigarette market, Juul no longer needs to do social media marketing because its young customers are doing it for them," said Caroline Renzulli, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The issue with teens juuling is that their brains aren't fully developed yet, so any affect the Juul's have on the brain is made worse in young kids. According to the National Center for Health Research, "brain imaging studies of adolescents who began smoking at a young age had markedly reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area critical for a person’s cognitive behavior and decision making, leading to increased sensitivity to other drugs and greater impulsivity." In addition to that, the amount of nicotine in one pod is equal to that in a whole pack of cigarettes, and many teens go through in a day, if not in one sitting.
Of course, you can still buy the pods online. Right now, when you enter the site, there's a pop-up asking if you're 21. A simple click of the yes block will grant you access to the selection. According to Juul, they're working to improve this verification system in order to prevent under age teens from entering the site and buying pods. According to the NYT, eventually Juul hopes to "add a real-time photo requirement to match a buyer’s face against an uploaded government-issued ID." In addition, to prevent bulk orders being distributed to minors, Juul will restrict customers to buying just 15 pod packages a month.
Juul will continue to try to curb the use of its product among underage teens, as the Commissioner of the FDA, Scott Gottlieb has threatened to ban e-cigs all together if he doesn't see an improvement.
"I could take more aggressive steps," he said in a statement. "I could propose eliminating any application enforcement discretion to any currently marketed ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) product, which would result in the removal of ALL such products from the marketplace. At this time, I am not proposing this route, as I don’t want to foreclose opportunities for currently addicted adult smokers. But make no mistake. If the policy changes that we have outlined don’t reverse this epidemic, and if the manufacturers don’t do their part to help advance this cause, I’ll explore additional actions."
y’all really got mango juul pods banned before AR15s
- 💙☠️ (@souljaguac) November 14, 2018
But, again, is it too late? Teens around the country, many of whom would never touch a cigarette, are already addicted to the device. And while flavors like strawberry, cappuccino, and watermelon are no longer available, other popular flavors, like mint, still are.
Of course, the ban of Juul could also lead many adults, who are using the product to wean of cigarettes, in the dust. So, Juul will continue to walk the line between promoting their product to help cigarette smokers and selling it to the already addicted youth.
Carolyn Twersky is the Editorial Fellow at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!
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