JUUL Is Circling The Drain

Looks like JUUL Labs just bit off far more than they could ever possibly chew, and they are now choking on it as we speak.  These quislings have asked for a ton of karma for years now, and now they seem to be getting it.  Their share price is in warp-speed decline right now.  As per the famously time-tested Seneca effect, their growth was relatively slow at first, but it looks like their ruin will be very, very rapid indeed.

First, they managed to get a new generation of young people hooked on nicotine with a sleek, deceptively seductive, fruity- and candy-flavored product (with excessively high nicotine levels, and more addictive than conventional cigarettes) and even more deceptive, Big Tobacco-style marketing, all while bragging about how supposedly "woke" they were.  Then they made a deal with the devil himself, Big Tobacco, when they literally SOLD OUT to them.  And then when these cowardly quislings were finally called out on their misdeeds, they threw 18-20 year olds under the bus by supporting the ageist abomination that is Tobacco 21 laws.  They even threw the rest of the vaping industry under the bus as well.  At the end of the day, they are really nobody's friends, never were, and never will be either.

And now with that mysterious vaping-related illness reaching epidemic proportions, albeit most likely driven by black-market products with questionable additives, as well as homebrew concoctions and modified devices (though JUUL still has yet to be exonerated), the moral panic around vaping that JUUL effectively helped to create has reached such a fever pitch that the Trump administration (and several states) are passing or at least considering flavor bans for vape products.  That will be the final kiss of death for JUUL, since most of these proposed bans will only allow tobacco-flavored products (yuck!) or unflavored products (meh), not even menthol or mint.  Even if the ban is later lifted, if (when) it passes they are basically dead and done by that point.

And if that itself doesn't ultimately bankrupt them, the mounting lawsuits against them sure will.

Now a corporate "person" without a country, what ever will they do?  (Plays the world's smallest violin)

Somebody call the coroner quick, JUUL is now circling the drain as we speak.  Let's hope they take their Big Tobacco parent company, Altria (aka Philip Morris) down with them as well.  And no, we will never, ever mourn their loss, not in a million years.

Good riddance! May your name and memory be forever blotted out, JUUL.

UPDATE:  As of September 25, 2019, their CEO, Kevin Burns, was essentially forced to resign, replaced with a Big Tobacco executive from Altria, and they pulled all advertising from the USA.  And the company agreed to accept the flavor ban as well.  And now they are embroiled in a criminal investigation as well.

We Still Excommunicate JUUL Labs (Updated)

(Editor's Note:  Twenty-One Debunked has never been affiliated in any way, shape or form with JUUL Labs or any other vaping, tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis company.  And we never will be, either.)

Dear JUUL Labs,

Since you were founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Pax Labs, you have always presented yourselves, at least publicly, as the underdog saving the world in the fight against the evil Big Tobacco.  Little did America know that you were about to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and make fools, and then cynics, of us all.

Why do we hate thee, JUUL?  Let us count the ways:

• You loudly proclaimed yourselves as the sworn enemy of Big Tobacco, but you began to copy their playbook awfully quickly in terms of advertising to young people and cynically implemented your own "anti-vaping", "anti-tobacco", and "holistic health education" progams in schools and youth camps. (You claimed that was just an oversight.  Riiiiiiight.)
• Your sham "educational" programs even told teens that your products were "totally safe" yet for "adults only" (wink wink).  And some of your summer camp programs apparently targeted children as young as eight years old.
• You recruited social media influencers with slick advertising campaigns that at least gave the appearance of deliberately targeting young people in marketing your products.  You also went out of your way to target Native Americans with your addictive poison-peddling as well.
• You chose a much higher nicotine level for your products than other vape brands, by far.  And your patented nicotine salt formulation clearly gives a much bigger "kick" of nicotine as well.  That was most likely to try to edge out the competition, and it worked--at the expense of a new generation of nicotine addicts, that is.
• You lowered your nicotine content when selling JUUL in the European Union and Israel (who by law set the maximum allowable nicotine content of vape products much lower than the American version of your products), but curiously still do not offer such reduced-nicotine products in the USA, or any nicotine-free products.
• You gave your products various kid-friendly fruity, candy, and dessert flavors, because reasons.  Or something.  I mean, we all know that adults need their nicotine vapes to taste like candy in order to help them quit smoking, right?
• Until very recently, you failed to adequately warn users that your products contain nicotine and are highly addictive.  Many young people did not even know that all JUULs contain nicotine, let alone such a high level of it.  And some still may not know yet.
• In fact, if anyone were to deliberately design the most effective and efficient way to surreptitiously get young people hooked on nicotine in the 21st century, it would really look an awful lot like JUUL.
• When the FDA finally blew the whistle on you in late 2018, you responded in the most cowardly way possible.  You decided to throw young adults under the bus by calling for the age limit for vaping products to be raised from 18 to 21, and you banned 18-20 year olds from your website.  And you still made no significant changes to your highly-addictive products, save for the removal of a few flavors in stores.
• And worst of all, you literally SOLD OUT to Altria Group (aka Philip Morris), whose name is literally synonymous with Big Tobacco.  You know, the evil industry you once claimed to be fighting against?  Your deal with the devil may have made you richer and bought you some temporary protection, but everything comes with a price, and your day will come very soon.
• Finally, thanks primarily to you, young people are losing even more rights now.

Thus, in light of the above grievances, we hereby excommunicate you, forever.  Here is your bell, book, and candle, you cowardly quislings.  Now go take your crack nicotine and shove it!

We at Twenty-One Debunked urge everyone to #BoycottJUUL yesterday.  If you don't currently smoke, vape, or otherwise use nicotine, don't start!  You are far better off without this highly addictive poison in any form, period, even if vaping does reduce most of its other toxic chemical satellites and byproducts compared with smoking.  But if you currently do, make it any brand but JUUL, and give 'em a swift kick in the margins!  And best of all, JUULers who switch to other vape brands may find it easier to phase out and finally quit all forms of nicotine for good.

We Hereby Excommunicate JUUL Labs

(Editor's Note:  Twenty-One Debunked has never been affiliated in any way, shape or form with JUUL Labs or any other vaping, tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis company.  And we never will be, either.)

Dear JUUL Labs,

Since you were founded in 2015 as a spinoff from Pax Labs, you have always presented yourselves, at least publicly, as the underdog saving the world in the fight against the evil Big Tobacco.  Little did America know that you were about to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and make fools, and then cynics, of us all.

Why do we hate thee, JUUL?  Let us count the ways:

• You loudly proclaimed yourselves as the enemy of Big Tobacco, but you began to copy their playbook awfully quickly in terms of advertising to young people and cynically attempting to implement your own "anti-vaping" progams in schools. (You claimed that was just an oversight.)
• You chose a much higher nicotine level for your products than other vape brands, by far.  That was most likely to try to edge out the competition, and it worked--at the expense of a new generation of nicotine addicts, that is.
• You lowered your nicotine content when selling in the European Union and Israel (who by law set the maximum allowable nicotine content of vape products much lower than the American version of your products), but curiously still do not offer such reduced-nicotine products in the USA, or any nicotine-free products.
• Until very recently, you failed to adequately warn users that your products contain nicotine and are addictive.  Many young people did not even know that all JUULs contain nicotine, let alone such a high level of it.
• When the FDA finally blew the whistle on you, you responded in the most cowardly way possible.  You decided to throw young adults under the bus by calling for the age limit for vaping products to be raised from 18 to 21, and you banned 18-20 year olds from your website.  And you still made no significant changes to your highly-addictive products, save for the removal of a few flavors.
• And worst of all, you literally SOLD OUT to Altria Group (aka Philip Morris), whose name is literally synonymous with Big Tobacco.  You know, the evil industry you once claimed to be fighting against?  Your deal with the devil may have made you richer and bought you some temporary protection, but everything comes with a price, and your day will come very soon.

Thus, in light of the above grievances, we hereby excommunicate you.  Here is your bell, book, and candle, you cowardly quislings.  Now go take your crack nicotine and shove it!

The Kids Are (Mostly) Alright in 2018

According to the latest Monitoring the Future results for 2018, it was mostly good news.  The use of most substances is down or unchanged compared with 2017 among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, including alcohol and combustible tobacco which are currently at record lows.  The opioid epidemic still does not seem to be engulfing teens the way it has for their elders--opioids are also down among teens.   And most notably, cannabis use did NOT increase in spite of increasingly widespread legalization, decriminalization, and medicalization in more and more states--and paired with the recent sharp decline in teen drinking, one could even argue that cannabis may be displacing alcohol a bit.

The bad news?  The second wave of the teen vaping surge from late 2017 through 2018 (after dropping from its previous peak in 2015 to a lower level in 2017) does in fact seem to be real.  And there was no similar increase in adult vaping at that time, in contrast to previous years.  But for that, we can thank the mainstream media and the FDA for fanning the flames of moral panic over teen vaping, which was probably the best (and free!) advertising that JUUL could ever possibly dream of.  And, of course, JUUL's unusually high nicotine content as well.  And, we repeat, teen smoking has continued to drop to a new record low.  As for the increase in vaping cannabis, that does not seem to have led to an overall increase in cannabis use, but rather a displacement of smoking weed to vaping it instead, much like was the case with tobacco from 2011-2017.

We Know Who To Thank For The "Epidemic" In Teen Vaping (Fearmongers, We're Looking At YOU!)

The FDA found that, according to new 2018 survey data, vaping is up nearly 80% (78%) from 2017 among high school students and up nearly 50% (48%) among middle school students.  Previously, teen vaping had increased 900% from 2011-2015 (while also displacing combustible cigarette smoking which is now at a record low, mind you), dropped slightly in 2016, and held steady in 2017 before this much more recent increase in 2018 that is believed to be driven by flavored vapes, particularly the JUUL brand which didn't really catch on until late 2017.

The recently announced FDA restrictions, in which flavored vapes (other than mint, menthol, and tobacco) will no longer be sold in stores unless those stores prohibit the entrance of people under 18, are largely a reaction to such data.   But let's look at the sequence of events here:  despite JUUL being founded in 2015, it is unlikely that many people had ever even heard of JUUL until the fearmongering mainstream  media's moral panic began in 2017, providing the very best (and free!) advertising that JUUL could ever possibly dream of.  Thus, we all know who to thank for that--fearmongers, we're looking at YOU!

If they really want to reverse this media-induced deviancy amplification spiral, the best thing for the media and the FDA is to simply STFU now that the new regulations are a foregone conclusion.  Also, reducing the maximum nicotine content of vape products (JUUL is apparently unusually high) down to European and Israeli levels would also make it less likely that young experimenters would get hooked.  But of course, that would make too much sense.

Israel's (and Europe's) Non-Ageist, Cool-Headed Response to Vaping

Unlike in the USA, it seems like cooler heads are prevailing in Israel and in the EU when it comes to vaping.  Rather than respond from a position of moral panic over teen use, which only fuels the deviancy amplification spiral, they instead took a much more measured public health response.  Israel recently banned JUUL due to its unusually high nicotine content, and almost immediately afterwards, JUUL began selling the same reduced-nicotine version there that they have already been selling in the UK and Europe to comply with EU regulations.  And interestingly, Israel doesn't even have an age limit for vaping.  (It varies in Europe, and is 18 in the UK.)

The kernel of truth to the concern about youth vaping in the USA has to do with the nicotine, which is hardly a benign substance.  It is a highly addictive drug as well as a known neurotoxin, especially for the early adolescent brain, and yet some teens apparently don't realize that vape juices and pods even contain nicotine at all.  And with JUUL's high nicotine content, by the time some young experimenters realize that it has nicotine, they may already be hooked.  That said, vaping is still safer than smoking, and it seems to be making a dent in reducing youth and adult smoking rates, which are currently at a record low, as well as increasing successful quit rates among adults.  That means that vaping is literally saving people's lives.

The best balancing act would probably be to stop panicking and to cap and reduce the maximum allowable nicotine levels for vape juices/pods to European and Israeli levels.  The FDA already has the authority to do this.  Alternatively, or in in addition, taxing vape juices/pods based on nicotine content would also be a good idea as well.

And stop panicking already!  Seriously, this moral panic is the best free advertising that JUUL and other vape companies could ever possibly dream of.

Oh, and by the way, there is zero evidence that raising the age limit to 21, as was done in several states and localities recently, has had any measurable impact on teen vaping OR smoking rates compared to states and localities that kept it at 18.  And since the apparent success of Needham, MA still has yet to be replicated anywhere, it would be most parsimonious to consider them an outlier, with factors other than raising the age limit being the real underlying causes of success.

Tempest in a Vape Pod: Let's Be Adult About This

Just a few months ago, we at Twenty-One Debunked posted an article about the latest moral panic to sweep the nation: teen vaping, particularly Juuling.  Well, that particular moral panic is now at (or approaching) its ultimate crescendo as we speak, with the FDA not only cracking down on retailers who sell to people under 18, but going so far as to give vendors an ultimatum of sorts:  either they come up with a plan within 60 days to tackle youth use of their vape products, or such products will be pulled from the market.  Such fighting words, aimed primarily at JUUL, have been prompted by largely unpublished data showing an alleged "epidemic" of teen vaping.

Wait, what? Oh, they must mean the "epidemic" where a whopping 2.4% of high school students in 2017 (2.0% in 2015) nationally reported daily vaping.  (And that is the total--keep in mind that among never-smokers, such figures are even lower still, at 0.3%)  Or maybe they mean the "epidemic" in which e-cigarettes have become more popular than combustible cigarettes in terms of experimentation and casual use, and regular vaping is making a dent in displacing regular smoking, but regular vaping among never-smokers still remains vanishingly low, and the use of combustible cigarettes has fallen to a record low.

Yes, you read that right.  A record low. Smoking cigarettes is decidedly "uncool" these days.  And by some measures, vaping has already crested and it too has also declined a bit as well since its 2015 peak.

So what should we make of all this?  First, don't panic, lest we continue to fuel a deviancy amplification spiral rather than let this fad burn out on its own.  The good news, we must repeat, is that combustible tobacco consumption is now at a record low among young people, and still falling.  And again, vaping is actually rarely used by teens who have never also tried combustible cigarettes.  If anything, vaping in general (including, but not limited to, Juuling) is displacing combustible cigarettes on balance, and is significantly safer as well--perhaps even 95% safer by some estimates.  The bad news?  Vaping is, of course, not completely safe, as most vape juices (including all JUUL brand ones, even if its users don't realize it) do contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and is even a known neurotoxin, particularly for the developing early adolescent brain.  Other concerns include the relative lack of regulation as to how these things are made and what sort of contaminants may be lurking inside, but again, it still pales in comparison to the dangers of combustible tobacco cigarettes, which contain literally thousands of other nasty chemicals as well as nicotine, including many known carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens.  So insofar as vaping displaces smoking, it is a net win for public health.

For currently addicted smokers of any age trying to quit, vaping can literally save their lives upon switching, and we must remember that no matter how much of a fever pitch the ridiculous moral panic over teen vaping ultimately reaches.  Seriously.

Secondly, we should note that this apparent fad exists even in states and localities where the age limit is 21 for both smoking and vaping (or at least for buying these things), including New Jersey.  Thus, raising the age limit is unlikely to solve anything in that regard compared with keeping it 18 and enforcing it on vendors the same as with combustible tobacco products.  Keep in mind that until fairly recently there was no age limit at all for vaping devices and liquids/pods in many states and localities.

And finally, there are practical ways of reducing any potential harm from all of this:

• Regulate vaping devices and juices/pods the same as combustible cigarettes (but no stricter), and require strong quality control standards and testing
• Warning labels alerting users about the fact that they contain the highly addictive drug nicotine
• Tax nicotine-containing vape juices/pods by weight or volume adjusted for nicotine content (but much lower than combustible cigarettes)
• Increase the number of nicotine-free vape juices, particularly for JUUL brand ones which currently lack such options 
• Consider banning or phasing out any vape juices/pods that have fruity, floral, or any other non-neutral or non-tobacco-style flavors unless they are completely nicotine-free ones
• Consider capping/reducing the maximum nicotine content in vape juice/pods, as is already the case in the EU and now in Israel as well.
• Educate the public, especially young people, on the truth about vaping, particularly with an eye towards preventing accidental addiction to something that they may not even realize contains nicotine at all
• Social norms marketing to help defuse any deviancy amplification spiral

Most importantly, we need to see the forest for the trees, and stop tilting at windmills already.

And most ironically of all, this moral panic driven by irresponsible yellow journalism is literally the very best (not to mention free) advertising that JUUL and other vape companies could ever dream of.  Despite being founded in 2015, it is unlikely that very many young people (or anyone else for that matter) had ever even heard of JUUL until it became at the center of the scare stories that started in 2017 and especially 2018.  And if the alleged unpublished increase in teen vaping in 2018 relative to 2017 does turn out to be real, well, we really know who to thank for that!

The Latest Moral Panic: Juuling in the Classroom

Those who are old enough to remember the 1973 song "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" by Brownsville Station (and/or it's 1985 Motley Crue cover version) would certainly remember that there was a whole lot of actual smoking going on in school or at least on school grounds back then.  Since then, in part because of the declining popularity of tobacco in general and in part due to today's stricter rules and laws governing smoking in and around schools, such conduct has declined considerably.

But now, there seems to be a new moral panic du jour taking hold lately:  Juuling.  What's that, you ask?  Well, JUUL is a fairly new brand of e-cigarette (vaping device) that was first launched in 2015 and really took off in 2017 in terms of popularity.  As for why it is so popular, it probably has something to do with the appealing fruity flavors and the fact that it is very easy to conceal since it literally looks just like a USB flash drive and doesn't smell like tobacco.  High school (and younger) students apparently even sometimes sneak using it in class, thus if one were to ever do an updated cover version of the aforementioned song for 2018, it might as well be called "Juuling in the Classroom".

So what should we make of all this?  First, don't panic, lest we continue to fuel a deviancy amplification spiral rather than let this fad burn out on its own.  The good news is that combustible tobacco consumption is now at a record low among young people, and still falling.  Vaping is actually rarely used by teens who have never also tried combustible cigarettes.  If anything, vaping in general (including, but not limited to, Juuling) is displacing combustible cigarettes on balance, and is significantly safer as well--perhaps even 95% safer by some estimates.  The bad news?  Vaping is, of course, not completely safe, as most vape juices (including all JUUL brand ones, even if its users don't realize it) do contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and is even a known neurotoxin, particularly for the developing early adolescent brain.  Other concerns include the relative lack of regulation as to how these things are made and what sort of contaminants may be lurking inside, but again, it still pales in comparison to the dangers of combustible tobacco cigarettes, which contain literally thousands of other nasty chemicals as well as nicotine, including many known carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens.  So insofar as vaping displaces smoking, it is a net win for public health.

Secondly, we should note that this apparent fad exists even in states and localities where the age limit is 21 for both smoking and vaping (or at least for buying these things), including New Jersey.  Thus, raising the age limit is unlikely to solve anything in that regard compared with keeping it 18 and enforcing it on vendors the same as with combustible tobacco products.  Keep in mind that until fairly recently there was no age limit at all for vaping devices and liquids/pods in many states and localities.

And finally, there are practical ways of reducing any potential harm from all of this:

• Regulate vaping devices and juices/pods the same as combustible cigarettes (but no stricter), and require strong quality control standards and testing
• Warning labels alerting users about the fact that they contain the addictive drug nicotine
• Tax nicotine-containing vape juices/pods by weight or volume adjusted for nicotine content (but much lower than combustible cigarettes)
• Increase the number of nicotine-free vape juices, particularly for Juul brand ones which currently lacks such options 
• Consider banning or phasing out any vape juices/pods that have fruity, floral, or any other non-neutral or non-tobacco-style flavors unless they are completely nicotine-free ones
• Educate the public, especially young people, on the truth about vaping, particularly with an eye towards preventing accidental addiction to something they may not even realize contains nicotine at all
• Social norms marketing to help defuse any deviancy amplification spiral

Most importantly, we need to see the forest for the trees, and stop tilting at windmills already.