[ad_1]
After a hearing this week, members of the US House Committee on Control and Reform said that Juul, the ultra-popular brand of electronic cigarettes, had intentionally targeted teenagers in schools and online.
On the basis of 55,000 non-public documents from Juul Labs, the subcommittee stated that Juul's youth prevention plan had recruited schools as part of a program bringing together Juul's representatives and students in the same school. piece. Schools received a payment for their participation in the program.
According to the statement, a witness presented to the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy described a representative of Juul who told students that the vaping was "completely safe" and recommended to a student already addicted to nicotine To use Juul.
The subcommittee also reported that Juul had spent $ 134,000 to organize a five-week summer camp for 80 children through a school à la carte, according to documents obtained at the school. ; hearing. The camp was to be a "holistic health education program".
Dr. Robert Jackler, of the Stanford University School of Medicine, testified about his conversations with JUUL Co-founder James Monsees said the use of Stanford's tobacco advertising database was "very useful in the design of advertising for JUUL," according to information provided by the subcommittee .
"The Subcommittee noted that: JUUL has put in place a sophisticated program to enter the schools and convey its message directly to adolescents; JUUL has also targeted teenagers and children as young as eight, in summer camps and non-formal public programs. and JUUL has recruited thousands of online influencers to sell to teens, "says the memo.
The company is also turned to more modern methods. Using an influencer marketing program to "gather and identify 280 influencers in LA / NY to create the JUUL product" and find "buzzmakers" in social media with "a minimum of 30,000 subscribers" to attend launch events of the company's products.
JUUL closed its social media marketing program in November of last year. Although his Facebook and Instagram accounts have been closed, the company's products continue to circulate on social media using hashtags created by the users themselves.
Submissions to the subcommittee show that JUUL knew that its prevention programs were "strangely similar" to those used by the major tobacco companies (which were eventually forced to pay $ 27.5 billion to the states and the government American for their sales practices).
JUUL has also taken steps to stop selling flavored products in response to FDA criticism.
As we reported:
Juul currently sells eight different pods. Pods that are not part of existing tobacco flavors – Virginia Tobacco, Clbadic Tobacco, Mint and Menthol – will only be available online from now on. In other words, the Juul website is the only place to buy cream, fruit, cucumber and mango (Juul's most popular flavor).
In this case, the company verifies that customers are over 21 years of age using cross-reference information, such as the date of birth and the last four digits of a social security number, with publicly available data, or by asking users to download an badysis of their driver's license.
In response to pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, the JUUL has taken other measures to limit access and limit the use of its products by minors.
JUUL has also targeted Amerindian populations, where smoking rates are higher than those of the general population. Rae O 'Leary, from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, testified that JUUL had targeted Native American tribes to use as "guinea pigs". According to the testimony of O. Leary, in exchange for an investment of $ 600,000, he asked tribal health professionals to provide their devices. to tribal members for free and collect information about tribe members.
JUUL declined to comment at the time of publication.
[ad_2]
Source link
