BUFFALO, N.Y. — The e-cigarette corporation responsible for the colorful and flashy advertisements that hooked a generation is at the center of New York State’s battle against the youth vaping epidemic.
“Today, JUUL is paying for the widespread harm it caused and will undergo severe restrictions on its marketing and sales practices,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday.
James announced Wednesday afternoon that New York will receive a quarter of a historic $462 million settlement agreement with JUUL, alongside five other states and Washington D.C.
The settlement will impose the strictest restrictions on the company’s marketing and sales preventing them from targeting youth with its advertisement after misleading its young consumers to believe its vapes were safer than cigarettes.
“JUUL’s lies led to a nationwide public health crisis and put addictive products in the hands of minors who thought they were doing something harmless,” James said.
According to the Attorney General, e-cigarette usage among middle and high school students more than doubled after JUUL first hit the scene in 2015 and has only continued to grow since.
Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 7 high school students nationwide have used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days — a stat Niagara Falls City School District superintendent Mark Laurrie says he is seeing firsthand and forced him to make adjustments.
“We've had to change our policy around bathroom breaks during passing time, whereby safety officers allow students in the bathroom there at the door of the bathroom,” Laurrie said.
Laurrie says that students have to clear the building one to two times a month due to vaping setting off the school’s fire alarm system — a reason he worries this action against JUUL may have come too late.
“I don't see marketing or the stopping of advertising stopping anyone from using something that you obviously become addicted to,” Laurrie said. “I think that the benefit in today's ruling is in the long term and not targeting new users.”