After Juul restrictions, students speak on its campus presence


The company will halt retail sales of fruit-flavored e-cigarette pods and suspend social media promotions to prevent underage users from obtaining Juul e-cigarettes. (Gabriela Thur DeKoos | Daily Trojan)

On Nov. 13, electronic cigarette company Juul Labs announced it would halt sales of its fruit-flavored e-cigarette pods and consequently suspend all social media promotions.

USC students, some of whom are Juul enthusiasts, shared their thoughts on the company’s latest move, and how it might affect the student body’s smoking culture.

“I don’t really think that [USC] is different from most colleges … in terms of the target audience of e-cigarettes,” said Megan Tebbenhoff, a senior majoring in neuroscience and international relations. “They’re so discreet and so easy to use that it kind of fosters the ability to bring it to class and bring it on campus and not have any repercussions or issues.”

Juul Labs, which launched in 2015, has faced backlash this year among regulatory agencies and consumers for alleged deceptive marketing strategies and encouraging underage smoking and nicotine use, according to The Washington Post.  

The company currently faces a nationwide class action lawsuit for causing nicotine addiction among users. According to the Food and Drug Administration, approximately 3.6 million youth under 18 reported having used e-cigarettes.

The e-cigarettes Juul sells can easily pass for a USB drive; the devices are portable, and can be charged on laptop computers.

Tebbenhoff said that some of the biggest problems with e-cigarettes include their accessibility and casual nature.

“With cigarettes, cigars, any other tobacco products, you have to step outside or go to a specific place,” Tebbenhoff said. “But with something like this, you can smoke it inside of pretty much any building without anyone really noticing and I have seen that a lot … People can smoke in class, which is kind of crazy.”

Earlier this year, the FDA announced that it would pursue a series of measures, including a complete ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, in an effort to curb teenage nicotine addiction. Juul Labs halted the retail sale of all fruit flavors before the FDA regulations went into effect, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Shelby Emami, a sophomore majoring in international relations, believes that the company’s decision to ban the non-traditional flavors will fail to curb the magnitude of the problem.

“I guess they would stop selling it because it is less appealing to the kids … but once they develop the[smoking] habit, I don’t think the flavors really matter any more,” Emami said. “I think they are going to still Juul because they are addicted to it now.”

Tessa Igler, a freshman majoring in international relations, said that if teenage nicotine addiction is such a big problem, teens will find other alternatives.

“I think that there are so many options in nicotine devices that if people really are dedicated to continuing to fuel their addiction, then they are going to find other ways to do it,” Igler said.

While the company has halted its retail sales of the fruit-flavored pods, consumers are still able to purchase the flavors online through the company site. It will ask customers to provide their name, date of birth, address and last four digits of their social security number in order to verify that they are over 21.

“Juul Labs is committed to improving the lives of the world’s one billion adult smokers, with the ultimate goal of eliminating cigarettes,” CEO Kevin Burns wrote in a statement on the company’s  site. “While we have been working to solve that problem, another unintended and serious problem has developed — underage use of e-cigarettes, including Juul.”

According to the L.A. Times, Juul Labs will close its social media accounts, losing more than 77,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 followers on Facebook.

“Our intent was never to have youth use Juul,” Burns said in a statement to The New York Times. “But intent is not enough. The numbers are what matter and the numbers tell us underage use of e-cigarettes is a problem.”

Caitlin Rowe, a freshman majoring in environmental engineering, said that the problem with Juul is not the flavored pods, but, ultimately, the concept of the e-cigarette.

“Overall, kids or teenagers are attracted to Juul because it’s a new technology,” Rowe said. “Everyone wants the a new computer, the newest phone. And this is something that is tiny and sleek and looks like a USB drive and it’s attractive [for] this generation … The issue isn’t necessarily the flavors, but more of the entire product itself.”