Juul limits U.S. sales of flavoured nicotine
Looking to curb use of e-cigarettes by teens through new restrictions
Juul Labs Inc., the maker of the e-cigarette that is wildly popular with American teens, said it stopped selling its fruit-flavoured nicotine pods to stores and shut down its U.S.-based Facebook and Instagram accounts. The move, which was announced Tuesday by Juul chief executive officer Kevin Burns, follows a campaign from the Food and Drug Administration to curtail underage use of e-cigarettes. On Thursday, an FDA senior official said the agency would restrict sales of many fruit-flavoured nicotine cartridges used in vaping devices.
The curb is expected to cut Juul’s in-store retail sales by 45 per cent, according to a person familiar with Juul’s sales projections. Juul said it will no longer take orders from retailers. However, stores may continue to sell their remaining stock.
There was no immediate word on how this might affect Juul’s Canadian sales, which began only recently.
But Health Canada spokesperson Anna Maddison told the Star the federal government has a “rigorous compliance and enforcement program” to keep vaping products out of the hands of people under the age of 18. This includes restricting the promotion of vaping on social media.
“Health Canada’s prevention efforts are focused on youth because this demographic is most sensitive to the negative and addictive effects of nicotine,” she said via email.
“There is concern that nicotine exposure during adolescence may alter brain development and predispose youth to further addiction.”
Juul will also lose more than 77,000 followers on Instagram and almost 11,000 followers on Facebook. Tobacco- and menthol-flavoured Juul will still be available in retail stores. The flavours mirror what is currently available for combustible cigarettes.
Juul says the company was created to help adult smokers quit. Users suck on a sleek penlike device to deliver a powerful hit of vapourized nicotine.
The company’s discrete design and high nicotine content have made Juul the top-selling e-cigarette in the U.S. .