Let’s Call This Youth Vaping Crisis What It Is: A Juuling Epidemic

Almost daily, educators across the country tell me that at least half of their students use e-cigarettes, mainly the Juul brand. Many of these young people show clear signs of addiction. They are agitated, emotional and unable to sit through an entire class period. They often need to leave class to “take a puff.”

National data about the pervasiveness of e-cigarettes show that it increased nearly 80% among high school students from 2017 to 2018. One in 5 report currently vaping.

But the vaping habit can start even earlier. Use among middle school students increased by almost 50% over the same time period, with 1 in 20 students reporting they had recently vaped.

Given that Juul Labs control about 70% of the e-cigarette market, allow me to borrow slang popular with teens and call this youth crisis what it is: A Juuling epidemic.

Vaping proponents would have you believe that e-cigarette use among youth is responsible for fewer of them smoking traditional cigarettes. This is simply not the case.

Statistics show significant declines in conventional cigarette use among youth from 1996 to 2016. But e-cigarettes weren’t sold in the U.S. until 2007, and Juul entered the U.S. market in 2015 as part of another company before becoming independent in 2017. The dramatic increase in youth vaping began that same year.

The e-cigarette industry has created this vaping epidemic among the young. It actively markets dangerous nicotine delivery devices to adolescents while trying to confuse the reality surrounding the use of these nicotine products.

The increase in e-cigarette use among young people has also been largely attributed to the youth-oriented flavors, misperceptions about nicotine levels and risk, and the patented and unique salt-based nicotine.