Juul Labs Announces Support for Michigan's Flavored E-Cigarette Ban

On September 5, news reported that in response to Michigan's ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, one of the world's largest e-cigarette manufacturers, Juul Labs, issued a statement to the media on September 4, announcing its support for the recent ban enacted by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (a Democrat).

Whitmer utilized her executive power to prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Juul responded by fully supporting the proactive policies aimed at reducing youth vaping.

“As governor, my top priority is to keep our kids safe,” Whitmer stated in a previous press release to the media. “Right now, companies selling e-cigarette products are using candy flavors to lure children into nicotine and making misleading claims to convince them that these products are safe, and today that ends.”

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, praised Whitmer's decision in the same press release.

“Governor Whitmer's actions will protect the people of Michigan, especially the youth of the state, from the known and unknown potential health risks of e-cigarette use,” Brown said.

Despite various studies showing that flavors help smokers transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, the policy is still being implemented. Additionally, consider the conclusions of Greek cardiologist Konstantinos Farsalinos from the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens.

Farsalinos wrote in a submission to the FDA that thousands of American farmers prefer non-tobacco flavored e-liquids and e-cigarette products over traditional tobacco-flavored options like mint and menthol.

“Non-tobacco flavors, especially fruit and dessert/pastry/bakery flavors, are the most common choices among adult American e-cigarette users,” Farsalinos wrote in the submitted document, citing his research involving 70,000 Americans for Status.net. In the same document, he stated that this research is the largest survey conducted to date.

However, Juul has taken a regulatory stance, positioning the controversial company (even within the industry) as an outlier in regulatory compliance. These policy changes include support for the costly pre-market tobacco product approval process in its current form and tobacco 21 legislation. Many industry organizations, including the Vapor Technology Association (VTA), oppose these policies, citing concerns that smokers aged 18 to 20 will be unable to legally access safer nicotine products and other tobacco products like snuff.

Due to policy disagreements, Juul has left the VTA.

Juul's full statement:

“While we have not reviewed the full decision, we believe strong action is needed on certain flavored products, which is why we have stopped selling our non-tobacco/non-menthol JUUL pods to traditional retail stores, strongly supporting the FDA's draft guidelines that are actively cracking down on counterfeit and compatible flavored products that can attract youth and may be made with unknown ingredients, with unclear quality and manufacturing standards. There is simply no place in the market for appealing flavors. That is why we will also support a complete ban on such flavors, including those that mimic children's candy, food, and beverage flavors.

“As for menthol products, we believe they should be sold alongside tobacco and menthol cigarettes to encourage adult smokers to transition from combustible use, which is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. To limit youth access to these stores, we strongly support tobacco 21 laws and are working with retailers to implement the strictest age verification sales standards for retail age-restricted products, far exceeding existing standards for other tobacco products or alcohol. Under JUUL Labs' Retail Access Control Standards (RACS) program, retailers will immediately lock their point-of-sale systems when scanning JUUL products and keep them locked until the retailer electronically scans a valid government-issued ID to verify age and identity validity.

This is an evolving story.