generalspeaking

Youthful Rebellion and Passe Nicotine

"I've heard lots of stories from kids who've used Juul in front of teachers, and they think it's so funny that their antiquated teacher doesn't realize that it's, in fact, an addictive drug that they're using."
Benjamin Toll, chief, tobacco cessation and health behaviours, Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina

Juul e-cigarettes look like USB drives and emit no odor. (Gabby Jones / Bloomberg)

"All of our smoking actual tobacco has gone way, way down. [Kids are] very much aware of the risks and consequences of smoking [they just don't believe what they're doing is smoking]."
Brian Maslowski, instructor of alcohol, drug and tobacco seminars. Fairfax County [Virginia] Public Schools

"[Juul is anything but new and different], it represents the cultural norms and notions of the cigarette, which was very much youth-oriented."
"It was kind of forbidden; it was extremely cool."
"If you tell a youthful generation, ‘This is really for adults,’ that makes it incredibly appealing."
"I think the history of this tells me, don’t trust these industries. Juul can say, ‘We’re not interested in kids; we’re going to fight the use of this in kids'."
"’But with flavors like mango, and cool cucumber' ... "
Allan Brandt, historian and author of The Cigarette Century

Boxes of Juul pods, which come in flavors such as mango, creme brulee and cucumber

Next up: and it's a new product that has been advertising itself directly at that huge demographic to be exploited by unscrupulous purveyors of addictive products. A Juul is a tool with enticing flavours certain to attract the attention of experiment-prone teens who want to be with the 'cool' crowd and don't care all that much about what they're doing to themselves since they happen to be impervious to harm, and it's just so much fun to play those games where you can sneak self-destructive habits under the detection of snoopy adults who exist to spoil all fun.

Forget cigarettes -- no one is interested in them any longer; even teens know that they'd be coffin-bound to begin smoking them. E-cigarettes are fine but they're, um out of favour, unstylish, no longer cool. The Juul now, that's something else; in appearance a streamlined little brick looking awfully like a harmless USB flash drive. It's neat, flickering with coloured light. Use it to discreetly puff, and look Ma! no tobacco smell. Er, don't look, Ma.

And don't look at Instagram where models boast they're smoking mango and teens post videos of themselves briefly puffing on Juuls. What an adventure! Health professionals -- what do they know anyway -- in a conspiracy to nag on kids, claim the new popularity of Juuling is simply cigarette addiction by another name. And youth are getting hooked on nicotine by public relations campaigns that are  relentless and deceiving.

The "pods" that fit into those Juuls, tiny pure nicotine, deliciously flavoured like fruit or mint -- those death-in-waiting capsules. $70 will get you a Juul and five "pods" representing the nicotine equivalent of five packs of cigarettes. Coloured lights, juicy flavours, and hello! we're partying! Sales of Juuls have increased over 700 percent from a year earlier, or so Nielsen data tells the interested.

Across the United States, schools claim to be confiscating the things from underage students. Juul Labs has had three lawsuits recently filed against them, each of which posits users as young as 14 become addicted to Juul, a product marketed as safe.

Ashley Gould, chief administrative officer of Juul Labs states that underage Juulers "was not anticipated and completely unexpected to us". The company is now committed to ridding the Internet of social media posts of young people Juuling. "No adult who has never used nicotine should ever use our product", she insists.

Labels: Addiction, Teens, Tobacco, United States

posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 20, 2018