U.S. Ban On Juul

About

The U.S. Ban On Juul refers to the United States government and FDA banning and removing Juul e-cigarette products from American markets, reportedly due to past controversies and lawsuits related to the company's marketing tactics and "fruity" flavors that were allegedly targeted children, as well as faulty data submitted by the company in regards to the safety of their products. The ban was officially enacted in June 2022 after previously considering vape bans in 2019.

History

This decision by the U.S. government to ban Juul followed several years of debates regarding their use by minors. The FDA had previously banned mint and fruit-flavored Juul pods in November 2018 in hopes that it would curb teenage vaping.^[1] News outlets like Wired even declared Juul had "dodged" a ban on all e-cigs back in 2018.^[2] Scott Gottlieb, the 2018 FDA Commissioner, called “kid-appealing” flavors, such as candy and fruit “the core of the epidemic.” On the other hand, mint, menthol and tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes were exempted from the proposed changes because of their aid in helping adult smokers quit cigarettes.^[2]

On June 23rd, 2022, the FDA officially placed a ban on the sale of Juul e-cigarettes effective immediately.^[3] The FDA's decision to ban the remainder of Juul's products was inspired by the fact that Juul’s applications gave insufficient or conflicting data about the potential risks of using the company’s products, including whether potentially harmful chemicals could leak out of the Juul pods.^[3]

Because of this reasoning based on the submission of insufficient or faulty data to the FDA, Juul was singled out among all e-cigarette companies as the company to be slated.^[3]

Reactions and Memes

On June 22nd, 2022, the official Twitter account of RapTV posted a tweet ^[4] that announced the FDA was "preparing to ban Juul E-Cigarettes after several years of review," effectively being one of the first outlets on social media to discuss the impending ban. The tweet received roughly 15,100 likes in one day (shown below, left). On June 23rd, after the ban was officially placed, RapTV posted another tweet^[5] about the development that earned over 8,000 likes in one hour (shown below, right).

Inspired by the aforementioned announcement tweet and many more from news publications, the FDA's ban on Juul started to trend heavily going into the remainder of June 2022. One of the most common reactions in memes related to the ban referenced several Supreme Court rulings that also happened on June 23rd, which loosened gun restrictions and strengthened concealed carry laws, specifically in the State of New York.^[6] The coincidence led to several memes and reactions regarding the supposed discrepancy in government oversight on choosing what and what not to ban.

For instance, on June 23rd, 2022, Twitter^[7] user _samaleman posted a quote retweet that stated, "they really banned juul before AR-15s," earning roughly 10,600 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Also on June 23rd, Twitter^[8] user revrrlewis posted a tweet that read, "today, the u.s. government said, 'you can't have a juul because it's too dangerous, but you can carry a gun everywhere you go,'" earning roughly 4,100 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Other meme creators took more humorous and less political approaches to making content about the event. For instance, on June 23rd, Twitter^[9] user B0YTROY posted a tweet that captioned a video of a Starbucks worker falling down after throwing a large sack over her head with, "me leaving Wawa with their entire stock of Juul pods," earning roughly 5,000 likes in less than a day (shown below).

me leaving Wawa with their entire stock of Juul pods pic.twitter.com/stQwSQW2Td

— troy (@B0YTROY) June 22, 2022

Various Memes

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External References