The nation is in the grips of a moral panic about flavored
e-cigs that could ultimately benefit Big Tobacco companies. Following a
rash of
vaping-related illnesses, including eight deaths largely tied to illicit THC cartridges, New York became the first U.S. state to
ban flavored e-cigs on September 17.
Michigan,
Illinois, and
Massachusetts are finalizing similar measures and President Trump has also suggested banning e-cig flavors. (Even India recently announced a
ban on all vaping, a move embraced by the
World Health Organization.)
More big news dropped Wednesday morning. Kevin Burns, the CEO of Juul Labs, is
being replaced
by K.C. Crosswaithe, an executive from Altria, the big tobacco company
that owns a 35 percent stake in Juul. Other outlets are reporting that
Juul is suspending advertising and that
layoffs are imminent.
If
flavored Juul pods and illegal weed vapes seem unrelated to you, you’re
not alone. Drug policy experts have described this overreaction as more
drug war delirium. But as we're already seeing, big tobacco companies
are using this crisis—as they have used other public health crises in
the past—as an excuse to consolidate their power over the newly massive
vape market.
Big Tobacco stands to gain from this hyper reaction
in a few ways. First, nicotine users who may be spooked by heavy-handed
media reports could smoke combustible cigarettes instead, according to
Jidong Huang, an associate health policy professor at Georgia State
University, who specializes in tobacco economics.
