Story by Megan Cain
Photos by Landon Cooper
Easily disappearing into a closed fist, Juul e-cigarettes bring fun flavors and cool colors to the vaping world. They became available in 2015 and now dominate the vaping market. A market that the North Carolina state attorney general is investigating. Megan Cain has the story.
TRANSCRIPT:
3 to 5 seconds. That’s all the time it takes for students to take a hit.
“Juuls got really popular, really quick, especially at my school, and I just wanted to try it out.”
That’s a local high school student who did not want her name broadcast because she’s younger than 18, the legal age to buy vaping products.
She’s used a Juul e-cigarette for about a year now, and she’s not alone. A federal government study found a third of e-cigarette users are middle and high schoolers.
But using the Juul can come with a price, as this high school student found out when she overdid it.
“I felt really dizzy. I was nauseous. And I had a weird, tingly feeling in like my face like in my lips and in my cheeks and in the tips of my fingers,” she said.
A Juul – which looks a lot like a flash drive – easily fits in your palm and comes in three different colors.
The nicotine comes in flavored pods that you insert into the Juul. The manufacturer says a single pod gives you the equivalent to 200 puffs or an entire pack of cigarettes.
Juul delivers a smoother and stronger nicotine hit than other vaping products. Although the company claims the vapor is safer than traditional cigarettes, Juuls are just as addictive – if not more.
The vaping trend caught on so quickly that North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein felt he needed to intervene with the expanding Juul market.
“I mean it was really quick. It was a mushrooming. It went from within one of two years, from one person doing it to the majority of kids doing it,” Stein said.
Stein says he feels responsible for helping these kids. In mid-October he launched an investigation into Juul Labs, the company that manufactures the e-cigarette, to determine if it marketed Juuls to underage users.
Researchers say Juul Labs did, mainly with a large social media presence and fun flavors.
“We don’t need to have mango flavored or mint flavored or fruit medley. These are meant to lure people who have not smoked before. These flavors are all about attracting new people and attracting kids. And it’s not right,” Stein said.
According to the surgeon general, 85 percent of e-cigarette users between the ages of 12 and 17 use flavors. Earlier this month Juul released an action plan to combat what’s being called a “youth nicotine epidemic.” The plan temporarily removes flavored pods from stores, invests in age verification software and deletes the company Facebook and Instagram accounts.
But, in an email, Juul spokesman Ted Kwong says the problem is bigger than just removing company social media. The company has asked social media platforms to remove any posts that promote the use of e-cigarettes by underage users.
Many parents remain unaware of what the device looks like and the health effects it can have, as a close friend of Stein’s found when cleaning out his kid’s backpack.
“And so then he engaged the kid and the kid’s like ‘Dad, I’m addicted.’ And he needed to go seek medical care, medical help to try to deal with his addiction,” Stein said.
Young people aren’t the only ones suffering because of the rise of Juul.
Big tobacco companies were left behind. At the end of October, Juul dominated nearly 75 percent of the market.
Unlike smoking, UNC doesn’t prohibit vaping. High schools typically ban both, and many students have been suspended for using their Juuls. But the local high school student says that hasn’t stopped her and her friends.
“I guess it makes us feel more independent and mature because at the age that we’re at right now, we feel like we are adults and that’s how we want people to see us as,” the high school student said.
Teen e-cigarette use is up 75 percent just this year, and health advocates don’t expect it to level off any time soon. In Chapel Hill, I’m Megan Cain.
