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 Juul agreed to pay a half of a billion dollars to settle a lawsuit in which they were accused of targeting teenagers.

If you ever wondered why the flavors sounded so much like what teens would want, or the colors were a bit to “young feeling” you were right. Juul was caught marketing to teenagers just like big tobacco has done for generations.

Abc writes. Juul agreed to pay nearly half a billion dollars Tuesday as part of a settlement with 34 states over the way it marketed its vaping products.

The $438.5 million agreement in principle with Juul Labs resolves a two-year investigation into the e-cigarette manufacturer’s marketing and sales practices. In addition to the financial terms, the settlement would force Juul to comply with a series of strict injunctive terms severely limiting its marketing and sales practices.

The company also misrepresented that its product was a smoking cessation device without U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to make such claims, according to the investigation.

The use of vaping is skyrocketing amongst teenagers. 

Guardian writes. Juul marketed its e-cigarettes to underage teens through launch parties, giveaways, advertisements and social media posts using young models, the states’ investigation found. Youth cigarette use has plummeted, but vaping has skyrocketed, undermining national efforts to reduce tobacco use. The National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2019 that more than 5 million youth reported having used e-cigarettes within the past 30 days, up from 3.6 million just one year prior.

Big tobacco and big vaping companies have preyed on the impressionable youth for generations. To them a half a billion dollars is nothing. There needs to be a better strategy for stopping underage use of tobacco and nicotine products. 

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