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.
This week, the Food and Drug Administration sells 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 it to stop.
Like other converts, Marchman says he has no plans to return to cigarettes after his favorite e-cigarette brand is no longer available. 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 ruling against Juul was about how the company’s products could have a negative impact on health, how it appealed to teenagers with a variety of sweet flavors such as mango, creme brulee and mint, and a marketing campaign for young people. Following many years of criticism about.
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 and attractive men and women 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. The news of the ban was upset for Matthew Luther, 31, who lives in Detroit and repairs leather goods.
“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.
Juul’s sales have declined in recent years, but especially Looked at competitors like puff bars, The company once dominated 75% of the market. As a result, brands have become synonymous with vaping devices for many, as Kleenex does for organizations.
“When we think about e-cigs, we think about Juul,” said Jenny Mathison, who started using Juul products 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 disabled husband, who lives in Rancho Mirage, California, said she was likely to move to competing brand Vuse.
Other Juul users buy and stockpile pods. (Juul Requested the Federal Court of Appeals to temporarily block the FDA’s order. It has not yet been determined whether the company’s products will be tentatively available. )
For Philadelphia editor Marchman, the FDA’s actions 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 contributed to the report.
