For adult smokers only: JUUL Labs Canada is working to ensure vaping products are sold only to intended customers
Through public education, technology and even secret shoppers, JUUL Labs Canada focuses efforts to prevent minors from vaping.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. JUUL Labs is a technology company dedicated to offering adult smokers a viable alternative to combustible cigarettes. Since the launch of its vapour product in Canada last year, JUUL Labs Canada has been working hard to help ensure that its offerings are available only to current adult smokers.
“There are more than a billion adult smokers worldwide and five million in Canada alone,” says Mike Nederhoff, general manager, JUUL Labs Canada. “Our mission is to provide our vapour product as a switching tool, and Health Canada has even stated that vaping is a less harmful alternative to adults smoking tobacco.”1
Nederhoff is neither a smoker nor a vaper, and carefully considered how family members and others close to him might be affected by the product before taking the position.
“I’m managing the message to my kids, and all of the young people I coach in hockey, that this product is intended only for adult cigarette smokers,” Nederhoff says. “The idea of minors using JUUL is unacceptable to me as a father, as a coach and as a representative of JUUL.”
To keep JUUL products out of the hands of young people, the company has implemented selfimposed restrictions on packaging and retail advertising, which includes removal of all advertising outside the physical retail store. The company’s only public advertising effort was launched in March — a “what parents need to know” campaign, designed to provide information on keeping vaping products away from youth. As well, JUUL Labs Canada has voluntarily refrained from establishing an official social network presence.
However, some minors are accessing “socially sourced” vaping products offered illegally for sale through social circles and networks. The 2017 Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, conducted for Health Canada, notes that 77 per cent of people aged 15 to 19 years of age have tried a socially sourced e-cigarette.
“Even with all the accessbarriers JUUL has put in place for our products, we know that young people who have tried vaping products are more likely to have obtained devices through social sharing,” says Nederhoff. “We’re redoubling our efforts to ensure that minors are being discouraged to use vaping products regardless of the
SAYS NEDERHOFF. source. We share a common goal with policymakers, regulators and community stakeholders to prevent youth from initiating on nicotine.”
Already, retail partners must ask for identification when selling nicotine products in accordance with the legislation. JUUL also conducts a secret shopper program to ensure stores comply with regulations – and it reports non-complying retailers to Health Canada. Any repeat offenders are also banned from selling JUUL products.
For online sales, JUUL Labs Canada uses unique ID match and age verification technology to make sure minors can’t access and purchase vaping products. All deliveries in Canada require an adult signature at the time of delivery.
“We’ve shut down buyers who order suspicious quantities of products,” says Nederhoff. “We’ve also worked with Kijiji and ebay to shut down 400 resellers of our products.”
David Sweanor, adjunct professor of law and chair of the advisory committee of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa, notes that novel technologies like vaping often follow a similar trajectory following their introduction.
“Companies that provide an innovative solution to a problem often find themselves initially criticized,” he says. “For example, some people initially looked at important developments in automobile safety such as airbags and seatbelts in terms of the injuries they might cause. As we did then, we now need to develop a rational approach to achieve health goals while addressing any unintended consequences regarding the use of vaping products — in this case, through public education, and through industry initiatives, regulation and public policy measures.”1 https://www.canada.ca/ en/health-canada/services/smokingtobacco/vaping/smokers.html
The idea of minors using JUUL is unacceptable tomeasa father, as a coach and as a representative of JUUL Labs