The Rise and Fall of Juul

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This chapter explores the origin story of the Juul e-cigarette, detailing how it entered the market and grew in popularity, particularly among teenagers. It follows Juul's marketing strategies, the backlash it faced from regulators and anti-tobacco activists, and the crisis surrounding vaping-related health issues that led to proposed bans on flavored vapes. The chapter ends with the potential impact on political outcomes due to the controversy surrounding vaping.

When the vape brand Juul first hit the market back in 2015, e-cigarettes were in a kind of regulatory limbo. At the time, the rules that governed tobacco cigarettes did not explicitly apply to e-cigarettes. Then Juul blew up, fueled a public health crisis over teen vaping, and inspired a regulatory crackdown. But when the government finally stepped in to solve the problem of youth vaping, it may have actually made things worse.

Today's episode is a collaboration with the new podcast series "Backfired: the Vaping Wars." You can listen to the full series at audible.com/Backfired.

This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Leon Neyfakh. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang with help from Annie Brown. It was fact checked by Sofia Shchukina and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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