Juul Is Big Tobacco – Today’s Announcement Leaves No Doubt
Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
WASHINGTON, DC – Juul today announced a new CEO: a top executive from Marlboro-maker Altria, which owns a $12.8 billion stake in Juul.
This announcement strips away any doubt about Juul. It is Big Tobacco.
Juul created the worsening youth e-cigarette epidemic, and today’s announcement makes it more important than ever that policy makers take forceful action to stop it by banning flavored e-cigarettes. The Trump Administration should quickly and fully implement its plan to remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market, including the mint and menthol flavors that are used by 64 percent of high school e-cigarette users and make up a huge share of Juul’s sales.
No one should be lulled into thinking that Juul has changed. They have promised reform before only to find new ways to deceive the public and policy makers. For example, even after claiming to restrict the availability of some flavors last year, Juul left mint and menthol flavors widely available on store shelves and youth use of these flavors has soared as a result. Juul has gone so far as to claim that mint is a form of menthol in its efforts to exempt these flavors from any ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Make no mistake: mint and menthol are flavors, they are the flavors hooking kids today and they must be removed from the market.
The youth e-cigarette epidemic has gone from bad to worse, and 5 million kids now use e-cigarettes. Juul’s announcement today is aimed at repairing its image and protecting its profits, not at solving this crisis. Policy makers must stand up to Juul and protect our kids by banning flavored e-cigarettes.