Chilling Out With the Latest "Cool"

"The bottom line is the JUUL is the best example of a technology that delivers nicotine more efficiently."
"This is a genuine phenomenon. Everyone would like this to be a fad. The concern is that this fad involves a highly addictive drug in the form of nicotine."
"I've been in a corner store at the Slurpee machine with my kids and there's a 10-foot banner overhead [advertising vaping products]. It took 20 or 30 years to get rid of cigarette displays. They reach everyone who goes into the store."
"Flavour is [a] big driver for kids. It's what gets into their mouths. And then nicotine takes over."
David Hammond, professor, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo

The JUUL vaping device is rechargeable, easy to conceal and has a sleek design, all features that appeal to youth. Julie Oliver / Postmedia

"[JUUL was founded] with the goal of providing a satisfying alternative for adult smokers", the company states, but of course it's hardly debatable that 'adult smokers' would be drawn to such flavours as 'unicorn horn' and 'cereal milk', putting the lie to the company's feeble declaration of honourable intent. While tobacco smoking among adults is no longer as prevalent as it once was, nicotine-product manufacturers have been diligently exploring methods that would be attractive to a new generation.

Formerly known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., now Altria Group Inc., seeing a new wave of users enthusiastic for nicotine delivered in a modern, neat and streamlined package, have responded somewhat predictably by buying in to this new phenomenon through a 35-percent stake in JUUL Labs late last year, paying out close to $13-billion for the privilege. JUUL is a battery-powered, rechargeable device designed to heat a "Pod" or cartridge of "juice" containing flavouring and nicotine; the resulting vapour is what users inhale.

"I don't know if youth know how much nicotine is in them. They're consuming an entire cartridge in one shot."
"It's an emerging issue. We want to tackle it as soon as possible. We don't want to be dealing with it fifty years down the line."
"For some [users], getting fined will be a deterrent. Others can be convinced of the danger of nicotine because their parents smoke, and they've seen what it did to their parents. And some can be convinced that they're the targets of marketing, and they don't like it."
"Each school has its own culture. In some schools, there is little vaping. In some, it's in the bathrooms. In others, it's under the trees."
"For youth, tech is interesting. They can build their own. There are thousands of different kinds of juices and flavours. You can conceal it if you want [clouds of vapour], or don't conceal it if you don't want to."
Dana Periard, project officer, Ottawa Public Health, tobacco control and prevention

Ads for vaping devices in an Ottawa convenience store. Julie Oliver / Postmedia

In the city of Ottawa, Canada's capital city, bylaw officers take "enforcement action" when students are found to be illegally using vaping devices on school grounds. A bylaw office can issue a fine of $490 to anyone selling or supplying a vapour product to someone under the age of 19. The Ottawa Catholic School Board has given the authority to its schools to remove doors from school washrooms to more readily enable staff to determine what is happening there; vapour is a dead giveaway. Schools have also been authorized to issue fines of $305 to students caught vaping indoors.

The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, amended in October to include vaping, enables school principals to call in bylaw officers to attend to vaping students. "I am extremely confident that the removal of washroom doors and the issuing of fines will discourage those tempted to vape or smoke indoors", commented the principle of one school in the Catholic School Board. In contrast to that move, the public school board has no plans to remove washroom exterior doors but does provide evidence statements to bylaw officers enforcing no-vaping regulations.

The new fad of school bathroom vaping seems to have occurred as a virtual overnight sensation as the JUUL brand name made its way into the high school lexicon as a tempting foray into disobeying adult authority to the extent that teens now refer to school washrooms as the "JUULroom". The device is attractive to youth challenging authority; its sleek look, ease of use, readily concealed size make it irresistible to slip in "pods" delivering flavoured nicotine salts.

A single pod contains nicotine equivalent to 20 cigarettes. Teens vaping an entire pod at a time become nauseous from overconsumption of nicotine, leading the new lexicon to expand with the inclusion of "nicking out". Professor Hammond has been receiving emails from school principals across the country seeking advice. Close to 21 percent of high school seniors claim to have vaped in the past month in 2018 where in 2017, that number was 11.7 percent.

The U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams in December issued an unusual public health advisory addressing the "epidemic" of e-cigarette use among teens, fuelled by new types of e-cigarettes recently entering the market. He noted that JUUL experienced a 600-percent leap in sales in 2016 and 2017. Health Canada for its part announced a week ago a campaign to warn youth of the risks of vaping.

Recently a province-wide survey of teens and substance abuse revealed that ten percent of Ottawa  high school students in 2017 had vaped. In comparison, six percent of students had smoked. It is Ottawa Public Health's intention to work toward a goal that would see the "de-normalization" of vaping and to that end work with bylaw enforcement along with police and addiction counsellors is proceeding.

Vaping has the potential to assist adults who wish to stop smoking, by weaning them off tobacco, even while it presents as a risk to youth. E-cigarettes and vaping are acknowledged as less harmful than smoking so the potential is there to reduce risk for smokers as long as they commit to transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. The reality is, however, that a majority of adults who make  use of e-cigarettes do so only to supplement their regular cigarette smoking.

Photographs of JUUL vaping kit Julie Oliver / Postmedia