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FDA Authorizes Juul E-Cigarettes

26 points| kdamica | 7 months ago |wsj.com

94 comments

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whycome|7 months ago

> ~ Original and Menthol

I'll never understand why adults partaking in a particular vice can't enjoy different flavours (unless the vice is alcohol).

Freak_NL|7 months ago

Do you mean why vapes aren't allowed to be sold in exciting flavours in a lot of countries?

Because what happened there was that 'strawberry kiwi', 'banana ice', and 'miami mint', and whatever fruity flavour in a colourful package you can come up with, turned vaping from something adults did to quit smoking tobacco into the biggest hype amongst teenagers since fidget spinners. Only they get addicted to nicotine as a bonus, and switch to 'proper' tobacco in their senior years.

Even with a complete ban on those the damage is done, and all across the globe society is now dealing with a huge profitable underground Snapchat-enabled market geared solely at selling the equivalent of a pack-a-day habit in nicotine to kids. (The ban helps to gradually denormalise vaping again, so it is good to have in place.)

LeifCarrotson|7 months ago

Rules around fruity flavors (trying to target sales that disproportionately go to kids) are one thing. Rules around menthol are another, only slightly less heinous thing.

About 85% of African Americans who smoke use menthol cigarettes, compared to a rate of less than 30% menthol use among white Americans. [1] They're disproportionately advertised and were (in the past) literally given away in poor Black communities to get people addicted.

Basically, policy makers can target their regulations to a specific group by specifying flavor. Sure, an individual white adult might like fruity flavors or menthols, a black adult might like originals, and some kids might prefer original or menthols, but there's a strong statistical bias.

When health departments are trying to address a particular health concern - say, young children smoking - they can do so by targeting fruity flavors. Conversely, when tobacco company marketing departments are trying to advertise their products to Black users without drawing unwanted attention from disproportionately white regulators, they can achieve their goals by promoting menthols. An individual from any population might have any flavor preference, but the dice are shockingly heavily weighted when you're looking at large groups.

[1]: https://datatools.samhsa.gov/das/nsduh/2019/nsduh-2019-ds000...

Barrin92|7 months ago

>unless the vice is alcohol

there is no exception to alcohol for this. Anybody who was a teenager or older in the aughts remembers "alcopops" (might have had a different name depending on where you're from). Lots of countries regulated or raised taxes on mixed drinks because they were seen (probably justifiably so) as targeting teenagers. In Germany it resulted in Smirnoff Ice and some Bacardi mix drink largely going off the shelves.

kevin_thibedeau|7 months ago

The candy flavors were marketed to children.

jajuuka|7 months ago

Because of the belief that making them desirable to adults is a method to sell them to kids. It also makes them less desirable which keeps cigarette sales up. Tobacco lobby is still going strong with its influence.

doctorpangloss|7 months ago

Alcohol is no exception, Fourloco was banned!

xnx|7 months ago

In some objective analysis I wouldn't be surprised if drinking a bottle of Coke daily is worse than vaping once daily, even for teens.

consp|7 months ago

Sugar is bad, but not that addictive and has no withdraw symptoms.

Nicotine is highly addictive and bad for you health. You pretty much have a customer for life ... which is the point. So next to having something which is bad for you, inhaling glycerol, combined with a substance which is addictive and bad for your health, you also are at a financial loss for life.

And it's targeted at teens ...

exolymph|7 months ago

Absurd comparison. Nobody vapes once daily.

(I think vaping should be legal, fwiw.)

downrightmike|7 months ago

Watch the documentary on Netflix, it is wild to see people start with noble intentions and then little by little, money absolutely corrupts everyone at Juul. Sick, sad and they make up so many excuses to try and project that they have some moral character. They aren't really trying to convince us of that, they are trying to convince themselves of it.

gizmov21|7 months ago

I dunno about that. Pretty much everyone from day 1 only cared about making money.

morninglight|7 months ago

My neighbor has two kids.

One kid has asthma and uses an albuterol inhaler. The inhaler requires a doctor's prescription and is expensive.

The other kid vapes e-cigarettes. Vaping solution is cheaper and readily available.

Perhaps albuterol is a dangerous, addictive substance?????

malfist|7 months ago

I'm sure loosening restrictions is all part of the Make America Healthy Again plan, right?

jajuuka|7 months ago

Considering vaping is an effective means to get people off cigarettes, I would guess so. MAHA is garbage but this is a good change.

stronglikedan|7 months ago

Absolutely. Vaping gets so many people off cigarettes. This is a win. The think-of-the-children thing was all bullshit.

nashashmi|7 months ago

Restrictions placed by govt is not a part of MAHA, and is anti MAGA.

jjice|7 months ago

Let me preface by saying that I'm not a fan of the evolution of e-cigs since they ended up being more of an entry point than a transition out of nicotine. Probably half of my friends started by vaping and moved to cigarettes.

That said, tons of other vapes are allowed on the market, so why should Juul specifically be banned?

jajuuka|7 months ago

Juul was particularly problematic for marketing designs they made. However it's not an unforgivable sin. Just needed a corrective action. Which threatening to shut them down seems to have done.

jasonthorsness|7 months ago

Targeting kids and teens with addictive substances (actually targeting anyone with addictive substances) is normalized evil. Also, addictive experiences (shorts...). Normally I lean libertarian but there has to be some allowance/mechanism for defending people from predatory corporations. Vaping was absolutely a huge problem in schools; legally "intentional" or not it was somehow getting picked up by kids.

jajuuka|7 months ago

Teen vaping has been decreasing. And the solution to that problem is ban vaping. When teen drinking was a huge problem we didn't ban alcohol.

paulddraper|7 months ago

Bizarre that we even have an FDA.

Tobacco products are insanely harmful.

Alcohol kills hundreds of thousands a year in the US.

But heaven forbid you flavor your nicotine.

What is the actual criteria for FDA approval?