{"id":2456787,"date":"2020-04-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/business-monday-pitkin-county-sues-juul-over-marketing-to-youth\/"},"modified":"2020-04-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T06:00:00","slug":"business-monday-pitkin-county-sues-juul-over-marketing-to-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/business-monday-pitkin-county-sues-juul-over-marketing-to-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Monday: Pitkin County sues Juul over marketing to youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"691\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-1024x691.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-1024x691.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-768x518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-1536x1037.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/juul-2048x1382.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>In this Monday, June 17, 2019, photo, a cashier displays a packet of tobacco-flavored Juul pods at a store in San Francisco.<\/strong><br \/><em>San Francisco E Cigarette Ban<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Claiming that Pitkin County \u201chas been hit hard by the youth vaping epidemic,\u201d a federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Juul Labs and other makers of electronic cigarettes and tobacco vaporizers have deliberately marketed their products to minors in the same manner Big Tobacco once did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Pitkin County government is using the same law firm \u2014 Phoenix-based Keller Rohrback LLP \u2014 that is suing Juul on behalf of other Colorado local governments including the city of Denver and Boulder County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The lawsuits come as Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is investigating the company for targeting youth through marketing and advertising. And last week, a group of 39 state attorneys general announced they were investigating Juul Labs for its marketing practices; Colorado has not joined that effort as of yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitkin County raised the purchase price for tobacco from 18 to 21 in January, though it was largely symbolic after the nationwide minimum age of 21 took hold Dec. 20, after President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion budget bill that amended the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Vaping rates in Colorado\u2019s resort region that also includes Eagle, Grand, Jackson, Pitkin and Summit counties \u201ccontinue to climb,\u201d the suit said, evidenced by a surge among high school students from 20% in 2013 to 54% in 2017. As well, Colorado has the highest rate of youth vaping in the nation, the suit said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pitkin County\u2019s lawsuit says Juul Labs is partly responsible for what it calls a high level of vaping among Pitkin County\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThese numbers are self-reported, and many public health officials think they likely underestimate the actual prevalence of youth vaping,\u201d the suit said, noting that the \u201cnumber of students vaping in plaintiff\u2019s community is even higher. In plaintiff\u2019s Aspen School District, almost 60% of high school students have tried vaping nicotine and 45% of these students used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kids have become hooked on the product and are remorseful for starting, the suit said, noting that students as young as fifth-graders in Pitkin County reported having tried vaping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cPitkin County youth have also self-reported to school officials that they quickly became addicted after first trying vaping and wished they had never tried it,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Youth have been allured to the products through Juul\u2019s marketing efforts on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network websites, as well as others, the suit contended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cMiddle and high schools throughout (Pitkin County\u2019s) region report struggling to control and respond to the number of youth vaping,\u201d the suit said. \u201cDefendants\u2019 products are discrete and easy to conceal, allowing students to vape in the bathroom stalls at school or even in the classroom. Plaintiff was told that some students do not feel comfortable going to the bathroom at school because there are so many students \u2018juuling\u2019 and vaping inside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Denver. Other defendants include Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group, the owner of Marlboro and a multi-billion-dollar investor in Juul Labs; New Jersey e-cigarette maker Eonsmoke; and another Altria concern, NuMark, which has suspended production of vaporizers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Juul, based in San Francisco, could not be reached for comment, but told the website coloradopolitics.com, which first reported Pitkin County\u2019s litigation, \u201cWe will continue to reset the vapor category in the U.S. and seek to earn the trust of society by working co-operatively with attorneys general, regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:rcarroll@aspentimes.com\">rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/business-monday-pitkin-county-sues-juul-over-marketing-to-youth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this Monday, June 17, 2019, photo, a cashier displays a packet of tobacco-flavored Juul pods at a store in San Francisco.San Francisco E Cigarette Ban Claiming that Pitkin County \u201chas been hit hard by the youth vaping epidemic,\u201d a federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Juul Labs and other makers of electronic cigarettes and tobacco [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 06:09:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}