Our view: Students go back to school with Juul

Sales of the nation’s most popular ecigarette, Juul, have skyrocketed nearly 800% since last year. If trends continue, teenagers returning to school will be vaping sleek, easy-to-conceal devices in bathrooms, libraries and even in classrooms.

And e-cigarettes, used by nearly 12% of high school students last year, have already surpassed the popularity of traditional cigarettes among teens.

The craze has caught on so quickly among young people that parents, school officials and public health advocates can hardly keep up. About the only thing moving slowly is the federal government’s effort to regulate the popular products.

The Food and Drug Administration, which was initially set to require that ecigarette makers go through a rigorous approval process by this year, delayed action on most products until 2022 — enough time for tens of thousands of teens to start vaping. About 2.1 million middle and high school students already do.

When e-cigarettes first came on the market in 2007, the hope was that the devices — essentially battery-operated nicotine inhalers that do not produce cancer-causing tobacco smoke — would help the nation’s smokers quit.

That they might. But for nonsmokers, there’s nothing good about inhaling nicotine, which rivals the addictive power of heroin and cocaine. It “can rewire an adolescent’s brain,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told USA TODAY, noting that the agency has only “a narrow window of opportunity to address” this danger.

Government oversight is not the only answer, but it’s one answer, and whatever the FDA can do, it ought to do faster. Recently, the FDA cracked down on retailers selling devices illegally to those under 18, and it is investigating whether the makers of Juul and other e-cigarettes intentionally marketed to teens. Last week, 17 companies that received FDA warning letters stopped selling e-cigarette liquids in packages resembling juice boxes and candies.

That’s a good start against lowhanging fruit flavors, but just a start.

Nicotine content is another worry. A Juul pod, for example, contains nicotine approximately equivalent to “200 puffs.” One college sophomore described vaping as “a quick little head rush that is stronger than smoking.”

The FDA has the authority to set product standards, and Gottlieb last year proposed reducing nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels. What about e-cigarettes?

E-cigarettes’ sleek designs and fun flavors are the modern equivalent of the cartoonish Joe Camel and the rugged Marlboro Man that once lured teenagers to try cigarettes. By 1997, more than one in three teenagers smoked, and many were hooked for life.

It has taken two decades of laws, lawsuits, higher taxes, public campaigns and changing culture to reduce the allure of smoking. Even so, about 38 million American adults smoke.

A full-court press is needed by parents, educators and, yes, the government to prevent creating a whole new generation of nicotine addicts.

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