Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Juul Raising $1.2 Billion to Get More Teens Hooked on Vaping
Juul Labs, the makers of the Juul e-cigarette that is popular among teens for its discreet design and addictive flavors of nicotine juice, is raising $1.2 billion to hopes of hooking a new generation to a maybe kinda slightly healthier version of smoking.
The fundraising effort, reported by Bloomberg, would value the company at $15 billion. Juul, which has already managed to capture a huge portion of the e-cigarette market in the United States despite launching just three years ago, would reportedly use the money to reach overseas markets in hopes of getting more people to suck down the nicotine-packed pods.
Juul’s fortunes have been considerably better than the rest of the tobacco industry. Bloomberg pointed out many of the industry giants have been slumping: Philip Morris has seen share prices dip 23 percent, British American Tobacco is down 24 percent, and Japan Tobacco is down 15 percent.
That’s in large part because cigarettes—long the target of surprisingly effective public ad campaigns that warn of the dangers of smoking—have fallen out of favor. Bloomberg reported cigarettes’ share of the smoking market has dropped four percent in the last year.
Where cigarettes have failed, vaping and e-cigarettes have succeeded. Juul’s market share is up 3.5 percent in the same period as cigarettes’ decline, and is up 700 percent in revenue from last year, according to Axios. Much of that success is with teens and young adults, who have taken to Juul so much that puffing on the e-cigarette is referred to as “juuling.” A 2017 study found one in four people under 24 recognized Juul, and 10 percent had tried it at least once.
That familiarity stems from a couple of different factors. As the Public Health Law Center pointed out, the product comes offers an “IT product design.” Essentially, the thing looks cool and functions like tech gear rather than something designed for a smoker. It’s easy to hide, the hits taste good because of the flavored juices, and the vapor smells good. Oh, and it very well may be addictive once they start using it.
Juul uses disposable pods that hold nicotine juices. That juice is heated by the device, which creates the vapor that the user inhales. In those pods is essentially the same amount of nicotine found in a pack of cigarettes. With a nicotine concentration of 59 mg/mL per pod, Juul pods offer nearly double the punch that many other vaping products provide.
Nicotine is an addictive substance, and exposing anyone—especially an adolescent who is still developing—to it in such a highly concentrated fashion is probably a bad idea. The 2014 Surgeon General’s Report found that nicotine has a negative impact on brain development and is associated with lasting cognitive and behavioral impairments, including harmful effects on the ability to concentrate, memorize, and learn.
Of course, these issues aren’t restricted to Juul but are present for e-cigarettes of all kinds. A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, also suggested adolescents who use e-cigarettes are twice as likely to suffer respiratory symptoms—a persistent cough, bronchitis, congestion, and phlegm, among other ailments— as those who don’t. It’s also not clear that taking up an e-cigarette actually helps cut back on smoking cigarettes. A 2017 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found there’s some evidence to suggest teens who vape are more likely to take up smoking cigarettes.
For all those reasons, some investors have been hesitant to touch Juul—clearly the most successful company to come out of the e-cigarette boom. The Information reported earlier this month that a number of venture capital investors have opted to stay away from the company because of ethical concerns. But the company looks like it’s going to make a lot of money, and that’s undoubtedly reason enough for some to ease their ethics to make some bucks.
Those who decide to back Juul will have plenty of questions to account for in the company’s near-term prospects. While e-cigarettes are a growing industry—Wells Fargo projects the market will hit $5.5 billion this year—regulation looms.
New York, Virginia Become First States To Mandate Mental Health Education
New York and Virginia are the first states to enact laws that require schools to include mental health education in their curriculums.
The New York legislation, which was written in 2015 and enacted on Sunday, directs all K-12 classrooms to get instruction about mental health as part of the overall health curriculum. Virginia’s law, which is set to take effect this fall, is less wide-reaching, requiring mental health education for the first two years of high school.
The New York law does not specify an additional curriculum but clarifies that mental health falls under the purview of the state’s overall health curriculum.
“By ensuring that young people learn about mental health, we increase the likelihood that they will be able to more effectively recognize signs in themselves and others, including family members, and get the right help,” the New York law reads, adding that the new education requirements seek to open up dialogue about mental health and combat the stigma around the topic.
Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, one of the lead groups that lobbied for the law, said, “We didn’t fight for specific curriculum because we recognize that what is taught in one part of the state might not be relevant in another part of the state.” The association developed nine core concepts that should be incorporated into the mental health curriculum, including identifying appropriate professionals and services, and the “relationship between mental health, substance abuse and other negative coping behaviors.”
The Virginia law says that the state’s board of education will collaborate with mental health experts to update education standards.
“Such health instruction shall incorporate standards that recognize the multiple dimensions of health by including mental health and the relationship of physical and mental health so as to enhance student understanding, attitudes, and behavior that promote health, well-being, and human dignity,” the law reads.
More than 90 percent of youth who die by suicide suffer from depression or another diagnosable and treatable mental illness, and students who have mental illnesses are less likely to succeed in school, according to the New York law.
In 2017, 11.01 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 reported experiencing at least one major depressive episode that year, according to Mental Health America. For people 10 to 24 years old, suicide is a leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Virginia law was passed after state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) saw that three high school students had researched, developed and presented the proposed legislation, which struck close to home for the legislator, who had lost his son to suicide in 2013. He introduced it in the Virginia General Assembly earlier this year, and the legislation was signed by Gov. Ralph Northam in March.
Debbie Plotnick, vice president for mental health and systems advocacy at Mental Health America, said that the laws are a major step forward in addressing mental health. She said she hopes other states will follow suit.
“We think it is essential that mental health not be something that is spoken about in whispers but is something that is part of overall health, both practice and education,” Plotnick said. “Major mental health conditions are almost always manifest in, if not childhood, certainly by adolescence.”
Young children also experience mental health conditions, though they don’t always know how to speak about it.
Regarding the Virginia law, Plotnick said, “It’s never too early to have folks being educated.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.
The Deadliest Drug
Most Americans have a general sense that drunken driving isn’t as bad a problem as it was a generation ago. But few realize how much those numbers changed in a relatively short time. When the federal government started counting alcohol-impaired traffic deaths in 1982, there were more than 21,000 a year. By 2011, the death toll was down by 53 percent. States had raised the legal drinking age to 21 and adopted a common rule that a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 meant “too drunk to drive.” Many states also mandated the installation of interlock devices to prevent those with a history of drunken driving from turning on their ignition unless they were sober. Those laws, coupled with education and prevention campaigns, helped reduce drunk driving deaths to fewer than 10,000 in 2011.
But recently the trend has stalled. The total number of alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities actually rose in both 2015 and 2016. “Drunk driving has been around since the automobile was invented and it’s still the biggest killer on the highway,” says J.T. Griffin, the chief government affairs officer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Indeed, alcohol causes more traffic deaths per year than either speeding or driving without a seatbelt.
10,497: The number of fatal alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2016, the highest since 2009
In January, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued a report about the causes of the problem and potential solutions. “Yes, we made progress. No, we didn’t get rid of it,” says David Jernigan, a Boston University public health researcher who helped write the report. “Ten thousand deaths are too many.”
The report provided a package of policy recommendations, one of which was for every state to lower the legal BAC limit from .08 to .05. In practical terms, that would mean most women couldn’t drive after two glasses of wine in an hour; most men couldn’t drive after three. The report is only the latest to call for a more stringent BAC limit: The National Transportation Safety Board has also called for a lower level.
Up to now, no state has imposed a limit of .05, but that’s about to change. Utah will go to .05 in December. In the past year, Delaware, Hawaii, New York and Washington state have also considered legislation to lower the limit. “It will change the conversation from, ‘If you have been drinking too much, you shouldn’t drive,’ to, ‘If you’ve been drinking, you shouldn’t drive,’” says Utah Rep. Norm Thurston, who sponsored the .05 legislation. The new message -- that driving shouldn’t occur after even moderate drinking -- “is probably what it should have been all along,” he says.
American alcohol policy is in a curious state of flux. On one hand, states and localities continue to tax alcoholic beverages not only to raise revenue but also to educate the public about the risks associated with drinking. On the other hand, states are passing laws that make alcohol easier to purchase by permitting sales on Sundays, in movie theaters and at grocery outlets. In December, Congress cut federal alcohol excise taxes to the tune of $4.2 billion over two years. The reduction is expected to bring down prices and increase consumption.
The national conversation around addiction has been dominated in recent years by opioids. Certainly, the rapid rise in opioid overdoses, which claimed 42,000 lives in 2016 alone, is a pressing issue for states across the country. The White House has declared a national public health emergency over the epidemic, and governments everywhere are marshalling efforts to combat the crisis.
But the fact is that alcohol kills roughly 88,000 Americans each year, more than double the number of opioid deaths. Almost half of alcohol fatalities come from chronic health problems attributed to excessive alcohol consumption, such as liver cirrhosis, breast cancer and heart disease. Those alcohol-induced deaths are on the rise. Excluding certain acute causes, such as homicides and traffic fatalities, the rate of alcohol-induced deaths increased by about 47 percent between 1999 and 2015.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition