Recently, I spent quite a bit of time working on public comments regarding the FDA's proposed regulation of electronic cigarettes.
One of my primary concerns is that the FDA is not currently looking at the issue of flavored products, and the impact that these products have on the use of these drug delivery devices by youth. A report just this week revealed that the number of young non-smokers who tried e-cigarettes tripled in just two years. There is no doubt that this is due to the explosion of kid-friendly flavors by e-cigarette profiteers.
Now, those same profiteers will tell us, with a straight face, that the flavors are for adults trying to quit. They also tell us that those same adults would be unable (or unwilling) to quit without these flavored products. I don't want to get into a long discussion about the fact that users of electronic cigarettes haven't actually "quit" anything. I want to focus on the argument that these flavors are for adults.
Which brings me to The Juice Box, described on its web page as "Chiefland, Florida's Premier, One-Stop Vape & Juice Shop". Premier implies that this is an elite establishment. So, you can imagine my dismay as a Pediatrician when I was directed to the Facebook page of this "premier" establishment. Here are just a few of the posts that I lifted from that page, revealing how the marketing of electronic cigarettes has less to do with helping adults "quit" than it does with the recruitment of new users from middle and high school classrooms.
The use of these images is nothing short of shameful. Juice boxes are beverages that are exclusively consumed by young children. There is absolutely no need to use such images. What's the argument for using them? That adults like juice boxes too?
One image more than any other gives away the strategy:
In this post, the store reminds us that the are "new flavs to sample"... that's right, kids, free samples! Samples that are currently banned for traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes and spit tobacco. But at The Juice Box, you can "get hooked again". So stop in!
When people ask me why we should regulate the e-cigarette industry, I remind them that the industry is not doing a good job of policing itself. Anyone selling an addictive substance for profit, has no interest in helping their customers "quit". There is not profit in helping someone to quit using their product. While stores like The Juice Box are the bottom feeders in the industry, an industry that tolerates these bottom feeders is equally guilty. That is why we need strong regulations on this predatory industry.
You can help. You can contact your representatives at every level of government, and ask them to reign in these predators before it is your kids that "get hooked again".
