targeted children, gradually increase levels of nicotine / Boing Boing

Juul – which is now a subsidiary of the Marlboro-owned company – realized a $ 12.8 billion increase in value, growing faster than any other vaping company, largely thanks to the children who bought its products , reversing decades of progress to encourage teens to stop using nicotine. while simultaneously monopolizing the market for vaping products

The other secret of Juul's success has been to steadily increase nicotine, an extremely addictive drug, from the first to go from 1 to 2% nicotine refills to 5% refills – an initiative that sparked an arms race of other manufacturers, which leads to the status quo, where almost all refills contain 5 to 7% nicotine.

One of Juul's key innovations is a patented "nicotine salt" that offsets the bitter taste of nicotine, allowing users to consume much higher levels of nicotine without having to go through bad taste.

The increase in nicotine levels has not only made Juul products more attractive, it has also made it more affordable to be a nicotine addict: the main costs of a nicotine addict Refill for vaporizer is not the liquid, but the capsule, its manufacture and its distribution.

Americans are getting more toxic versions of Juul products. The tightened regulatory environment in countries like the United Kingdom and Israel has limited Juul to the sale of 1.7% refills.

The vaporization industry now sells liquids in unsafe bottles for children that contain enough nicotine to "kill an entire preschool clbad."

The findings regarding Juul's pioneering role in the increase of nicotine in vaping products have been reported in the BMJ journal Tobacco control, in a study titled Nicotine Arms Race: JUUL and the High Nicotine Product Market (Sci-Hub Mirror) written by two Stanford researchers.

When Juul released its original 5% nicotine capsules in the United States in 2015, the majority of competing products were in concentrations of 1% to 2%, according to the author of the report. study, Dr. Robert Jackler, founder of Stanford Research on the impact of tobacco advertising. Today, a number of competing brands reach 5% to 7%.
Experts say that a single capsule of 5% gives the body the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.

"This may be a benefit for adult smokers addicts, but it also creates a powerful addiction to nicotine-naive teens," Jackler said.

Juul has increased its own nicotine levels by using a patented "nicotine salt". By combining nicotine – a bitter base in its natural form – with an organic acid, vape manufacturers can mask the unpleasant taste of nicotine and create products with higher concentrations, experts say.

Nicotine race: JUUL and the high nicotine product market [Robert K Jackler and Divya Ramamurthi/BMJ Tobacco Control] (Sci-Hub mirror)

Juul increased levels of nicotine and its competitors followed, according to a study [Michael Nedelman and Roni Selig/CNN]

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