After about 25 years of smoking, Tim Marchman wanted to quit. Still, he didn’t want to be the kind of person he called “Ark Guy.” He’s the kind of person who spends hours choosing from dozens of electronic nicotine delivery devices in specialty stores, many of which are very elaborate. So he settled on what impressed him as the simplest option, Juul, a brand that for some time was virtually synonymous with vaping.
“Juul is the default,” said Marchman, editor of Vice Media’s technology and science site. MotherboardSaid in an interview. “Only plug and play.”
Unlike some other e-cigarette brands, Juul was also widely available. “They have it at every gas station in the middle,” Marchman said.
It is subject to change.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration sold the device to Juul Labs in the United States, citing inadequate and inconsistent data from the company on potentially harmful chemicals that could seep out of Juul’s electronic liquid pods. I ordered to stop. On Friday, a federal court gave the company a temporary grace and allowed e-cigarettes to be stored in stores until a legal review of the FDA’s order was made.
Like other converts, Marchman says he has no plans to return to cigarettes if it turns out that he can no longer get his favorite e-cigarette brand. Still, he wonders how the FDA’s orders affect his habits.
Read more about smoking and steaming
“If I leave the country, do I need to bring my arc juice with me?” Said Marchman, who lives in Philadelphia at the age of 43. “Where can I get it? I hardly know where in Philadelphia.”
The FDA’s order has long been about the potential health consequences of Juul products, how they appealed to teenagers with various sweet flavors such as mango, creme brulee and mint, and marketing campaigns for young people. Following the criticism.
The predecessor of Juul Labs was founded in 2007 by two entrepreneurs, James Monsees and Adam Bowen, who came up with the idea of a cigarette alternative during a cigarette break during a graduate student at Stanford University. When Juuls was first sold in 2015, the brand’s popularity soared. Lively advertising campaign It showed young people smiling, laughing, and striking poses under the word “vaporized.”
By 2018, Juul had become so popular that the brand name became a verb, and teens secretly “juuled” in high school classrooms and corridors. That same year, Philip Morris’ parent company Altria agreed to pay $ 13 billion for a 35% stake in Juul Labs.
Since then, the state’s Attorney General has been accused of promoting nicotine addiction to teens through advertising campaigns. Juul will pay tens of millions of dollars to settle the proceedings in 2019 and 2021. From Silicon Valley success stories to public health paria, the rise and fall of the company was recorded in the 2021 documentary “Move Fastand Vape Things.” York Times.
Juul lost its business after reducing advertising as a result of the proceedings, but remained one of the most prominent and popular e-cigarette brands on the market. For Matthew Luther, 31, who lives in Detroit and repairs leather goods, the news of a possible ban was upset.
“I definitely miss Juuls,” said 31-year-old Luther. “I think they were aesthetically pleasing. Easy to put in your pocket and refillable.”
Like everyone else interviewed in this article, he said he appreciates the simple design of a Juul device that resembles a flash drive. “The ban seems negative to me,” he said.
The FDA’s ruling was just as Luther increased the use of Juul products. “I think it’s just life, stress, and I’ve been trying to quit smoking,” he said.
Including Juul competitors Puff bar, Has grown in recent years. But for many, Juul remains synonymous with vaping devices, as Kleenex does for organizations.
“When we think about e-cigs, we think about Juul,” said Jenny Mathison, who started using the brand in 2018. It was the only nicotine alternative she found that was able to kick the Marlboro habit she learned in high school. , She added.
Matisse, 54, a full-time caregiver for her husband with a disability who lives in Rancho Mirage, California, said she was likely to move to competing brand Vuse if the FDA passed. rice field.
For Philadelphia’s editor, Marchman, if the FDA’s orders are upheld, he could turn into the very type he had long feared, the Ark man.
“It’s going to be a weird vaping rig that I don’t fully understand,” Marchman said. “You have to choose a device and try different juices. That will be all.”
Sandra E. Garcia Report that contributed.
