Nov. 9, 2018 — E-cigarette startup Juul Labs Inc., faced with a regulatory crackdown and criticism that its marketing has attracted underage users, plans to stop selling most of its flavored nicotine liquids at bricks-and-mortar stores, according to people familiar with the matter.
Juul plans to keep selling menthol- and tobacco-flavored products in stores, while all flavors, including cucumber and mango, will remain on its website, which has age-verification controls, the people said. The planned restrictions could heavily affect Juul Labs, according to analysts who say more than half of its sales come from flavors other than tobacco, mint and menthol.
JUUL has become the go-to vaping product for teens, not only because of the higher nicotine hit, but because of the way it’s designed. Sleek and easily concealable—about the size of a USB flash-drive—it’s simple to carry around and for many teens, “looks cool.” It has become so popular that it has its own term now—teens call vaping with the JUUL “JUULing.”
Unfortunately, most teens do not understand the danger of what they’re doing. According to a survey by the Truth Initiative, 63 percent of JUUL users did not know that the product always contained nicotine.
Alarmed by these and other signs that more and more teens are getting hooked on nicotine through JUUL and other e-cigarettes, the FDA recently announced they were giving manufacturers 60 days to come back with “robust plans on how they’ll convincingly address the widespread use of their products by minors….,” essentially putting the companies “on notice” when it comes to how their products are being used by youth.
When analyzing the samples, scientists discovered that the participants who were using pod systems like the popular JUUL devices had nicotine concentrations significantly higher than those using other vaping devices.
Why would this be? It comes down to the difference between traditional vaping pens and newer pods.
- Vaping pens can be filled with various vape juices or fluids, and are often more cost-effective than pods. There is a range of nicotine strengths available in the refills.
- Vaping pods come pre-filled, so they are easier to use. The user plugs the new pod into the vaping system and starts vaping. JUUL is the leading distributor of these pods and uses a type of nicotine solution that absorbs more easily and quickly into the body.
Indeed, according to Electric Tobacconist, JUUL uses a unique nicotine salt that is absorbed into the body better than the freebase nicotine that is normally used in vape pen solutions.
