RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's attorney general is suing a popular e-cigarette maker, asking a court to limit what flavors it can sell and ensure underage teens can't buy its vaping products.
Josh Stein, the top law enforcement official in the traditionally tobacco-friendly state, said Wednesday that he's the first state attorney general to take the maker of Juul to court.
Juul's marketing practices are causing an "epidemic" among young people through "unfair and deceptive" marketing practices, Stein said Wednesday at a news conference.
Juul, which started up in 2015, now controls nearly three-quarters of the $3.7 billion retail market for e-cigarettes. The explosion of underage vaping has alarmed public-health officials and lawmakers. Last year, 1 in 5 U.S. high school students reported vaping in the previous month, according to a government survey .
Stein said Juul's use among teens is higher than Juul's supposed targeted demographic. He said that's probably because of marketing practices aimed at young people, such as using "fruit and dessert-like flavors that serve to entice children to the product."
The use of Juul among young people in the state has skyrocketed, said Dr. Susan Kansagra with the North Carolina Public Health Division.
"In a span of six years we've seen a 900% increase in high school students reporting that they are using e-cigarettes," Kansagra said. "Among middle school students we've seen a 400% increase in e-cigarettes."
A spokesman for Juul Labs said in an emailed statement that the company is concerned about vaping by young people and is working to reduce the practice.
"We stopped the sale of non-tobacco and non-menthol based flavored Juul Pods to our traditional retail store partners, enhanced our online age-verification process, strengthened our retailer compliance program with over 2,000 secret shopper visits per month, and shut down our Facebook and Instagram accounts," the statement read.
Candy and fruit flavors of Juul are still available online. The company considers mint a menthol-based flavor, so it is still sold in stores. Stein's lawsuit asked a judge for a statewide ban on the online sale of all flavors besides menthol and tobacco, including mint.
Business on 05/16/2019