The price of cool: a Teenager, a Juul and Nicotine Addiction
This flashdrive like device helped longtime smokers quit smoking cigarettes,
however letting teenagers who has never smoked become addicted to
nicotine, taking at least three to four hits daily. The food and Drug administration
had restricted certain flavored e-cigarettes pods to customers under 18.
A teenager by the name of Matt (17), talks about his juul and nicotine addiction
and how it would interrupt his school and life events. With spending excessive
amounts on buying pods and juuls, being extremely dependent and rely on his
juul to make him calmer even if it gave him head rushes. The FDA will also hold
a public hearing addressing the problems about teenage nicotine addiction.
Juuls were purposely targeting younger teenage customers, and have officially
announced to stop marketing promotions and stop selling certain flavors except
tobacco, menthol and mint.
A juul pod contains an equal amount as a pack of cigarettes, benefitting smokers
who quit smoking to start the usage of juul and nicotine. However, since juuls are
majorly impacting teenagers, affecting their growth and brains that are still
developing. It can ruin and control their attention and learning and have
possibly long term effects. Certain popular flavors can also produce chemicals
that irritate airways and lungs, having an effect on heart and arteries.
Matt spent $100 to uber to a local store that sold juuls when he was out on
vacation without vaping for 2 days, spending mostly all his money on it. He
also stated that many of his athlete friends and him noticed that they would
get out of breath easily and only lowered their performance.
How did juul lure teenagers in the first place? How did it target teenagers
specifically?
Could the FDA have done more to address this issue or restrict juuls from
selling in stores?
Why are they only banning stores not to sell certain popular flavors? How is
that going to solve a addiction from teenagers?
sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/health/vaping-juul-teens-addiction-nicotine.html
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/1/17286638/juul-vaping-e-cigarette