The main ethical situation that Juul is dealing with is the amount of young kids smoking because of their product. Chief Executive of Juul Labs, Kevin Burns, quoted "Our intent was never to have youth use Juul." As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the actions taken by Juul have been major and could massively impact the money being made by the company. Techcrunch.com posted an article with statements by CEO Kevin Burns where he said "We fully support FDA's efforts to curb underage use of tobacco products, and we believe restricting access to flavors will negatively impact current adult smokers in their journey to switch from combustible cigarettes. We encourage FDA to allow for further scientific exploration on the role flavors play in helping adult smokers transition away from cigarettes."
Juul has created very strict restrictions on their product and the consumption and purchasing of their products. Instead of having to be 18 years of older, the required age to purchase a Juul E-Cigarette is now 21. On top of this, they have temporarily stopped supplying retail stores with their flavorful pods.
Juul also improved its online age verification system to make sure that buyers are 21 and older and they have plans to add real-time photo requirements to match a buyers face against an uploaded government issued ID. Even after all these changes, Juul shut down its Facebook and Instagram accounts which were promoting the use of the Juul and its flavored nicotine pods.
"Juul Labs works to support adult smokers in their efforts to switch, we also remain steadfast in our commitment to preventing underage use of vapor products. Both goals can be achieved through reasonable regulation to restrict advertising and naming of flavors such as cotton candy and gummy bear that are directed at children." - CEO Kevin Burns
After all the research I have been doing on Juul and the heat that they are taking over youth smoking rates, I believe their approach to fixing the situation is genuine and that they are doing their best to have the "best of both worlds" regarding adults quitting and kids not smoking. Juul shutting down their social media pages is a huge indicator that they support the FDA and want to make an impact on decreasing the amount of underage smokers. At the same time however, the damage has already been done as far as getting underage people to start smoking, and thousands of people already have addictions to these vapes. I believe Juul knows that people will still abuse their product and underage kids will continue to use Juul's, they will just have a harder time getting their hands on flavored pods.
I don't think there is much more that Juul can do without completely destroying their company. They have taken big risks to try and show the FDA they care about helping the problems we see related to tobacco use, and the rest is on the FDA and regulating the use of vapes. A big defense for Juul is that underage kids have been smoking e-cigarettes far before Juul even existed, and the blame cannot be put just on them. However with over 70% of the market, they are left with no other choice but to make serious changes in distribution before the FDA makes changes that could put them out of business.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-vaping-teenagers.html
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/juul-labs-responds-to-fda-concerns-about-flavored-e-liquids/
Juul has created very strict restrictions on their product and the consumption and purchasing of their products. Instead of having to be 18 years of older, the required age to purchase a Juul E-Cigarette is now 21. On top of this, they have temporarily stopped supplying retail stores with their flavorful pods.
Juul also improved its online age verification system to make sure that buyers are 21 and older and they have plans to add real-time photo requirements to match a buyers face against an uploaded government issued ID. Even after all these changes, Juul shut down its Facebook and Instagram accounts which were promoting the use of the Juul and its flavored nicotine pods.
"Juul Labs works to support adult smokers in their efforts to switch, we also remain steadfast in our commitment to preventing underage use of vapor products. Both goals can be achieved through reasonable regulation to restrict advertising and naming of flavors such as cotton candy and gummy bear that are directed at children." - CEO Kevin Burns
I don't think there is much more that Juul can do without completely destroying their company. They have taken big risks to try and show the FDA they care about helping the problems we see related to tobacco use, and the rest is on the FDA and regulating the use of vapes. A big defense for Juul is that underage kids have been smoking e-cigarettes far before Juul even existed, and the blame cannot be put just on them. However with over 70% of the market, they are left with no other choice but to make serious changes in distribution before the FDA makes changes that could put them out of business.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/health/juul-ecigarettes-vaping-teenagers.html
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/juul-labs-responds-to-fda-concerns-about-flavored-e-liquids/
It definitely looks like Juul is doing quite a bit in order help save their public image. Making the age to by a juul 21 instead of 18 and also the online age verification. That being said I think they are just doing this to please the FDA and take a little bit of pressure off their company. They definitely know that people are still gonna get their products in some way and they will make the same amount of money that they were making before they set these regulations.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I completely agree with you. It is a huge move however that they raised the age to 21. That's something that hasn't been seen before and it could be a risky move for the money being made for sure. I feel like they almost don't care about who is smoking the Juul as long as they are making money from it.
DeleteGreat post about the response of JUUL to the ethical dilemma. I do agree with you on the claim about JUUL is genuine in the company's attempt to prevent teen smoking and reduce adult smoking. However, I do not think JUUL is carrying out the company's full obligation. I think JUUL should implement programs to reverse the movement the company has started in teen smoking. For example, I believe JUUL should start an advertising campaign to show the harm in teen smoking. Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteI l ike that idea of them implementing a program to help people reverse their addictions. That would be the most genuine thing that they could do. They claim so much that they don't want children and kids to smoke so they should make more public claims saying that smoking underage is not cool at all and is terrible for them.
DeleteReading Juuls response, I can see why they want to make sure that their flavors are not restricted because it is what makes their product so popular. Based on my experiences with encounters with people who have Juuls, they love the different flavors offered. However I think that Juul is responding well to all the backlash and criticism about how they should prevent minors from purchasing their products. I believe that Juul is only raising the age to 21 and adding extra measures to prevent minors from buying it just to please the FDA like Simon said. But that is not to say that they are not genuine in their efforts because I don't think they want to have a bad reputation for getting minors addicted to smoking. Juul has definitely taken some big risks in terms of marketing and money making by implementing these measures but I think it shows that they are committed to doing what they can to decrease the number of underage smokers. I believe that they should still be able to have flavored Juul pods in stores but make sure that verification is presented to make sure that minors cannot purchase it. Minors who are committed will still be able to get it through other means like finding someone older to purchase it for them but this would be an extra step that might deter them from doing so.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this point that they are only raising the age to appeal to the FDA. With over 70% in the market they really can afford to do something like this and still have their name out there and have it be the first thing people think about when it comes to E-cigs.
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