The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.9 HUGE Crackdown & Ban Around The Corner As Juul Debate Escalates... Epidemic Or Overblown?

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

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Sup, you beautiful bastards. I hope you're having a fantastic Friday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And today, I wanna do something a little bit different. I want to talk about just one big story today that's in the news now, but we're gonna be seeing a lot more in the future too. And that's why today we're gonna be talking about vaping.

What started as a subculture among young people and adults trying to quit smoking traditional tobacco products has now grown into a multi-billion dollar global industry. And in fact, according to the market research firm P&S Intelligence, the e-cigarette and vaporizer market is expected to reach a valuation of $44 billion by 2023. And the growth of this market among young people, especially in the United States,

has been pretty dramatic over the last few years. And what we've seen is that while the use of traditional tobacco products, things like cigarettes, cigars, by high schoolers and middle schoolers, that has dropped. And in fact, dropped by nearly one million students between 2011 and 2017. The number of students using e-cigarette products tripled between 2013 and 2014.

And last year, 2.1 million young people used e-cigarette products, or just to kind of give you an idea, we're talking about nearly 12% of high schoolers and 3.3% of middle schoolers. And the big thing here is that these numbers are continuing to rise. According to preliminary data from the FDA that has not been officially published yet, there's been a 77% increase in e-cigarette use among high schoolers this year compared to last year. Now to be clear here, the science shows that e-cigarettes and vaporizers are safer than traditional tobacco products. But the rapid growth of this industry among young people

hasn't escaped the attention of the FDA. Over the summer, the agency launched an undercover enforcement effort to prevent retailers from selling e-cigarettes to minors. And they then followed that move by issuing more than 1,300 letters to some of the biggest manufacturers of vaporizers and e-cigarettes,

demanding that they develop action plans within 60 days on how they will reduce youth access to their products. And perhaps no company has received more flak from the FDA than Juul. And for those that don't know, Juul is a vaporizer shaped like a USB stick that uses replaceable cartridges called pods filled with a salt-based nicotine liquid formula.

It's by far the most popular vape product, representing a whopping 75% of the e-cigarette dollar market share. I mean, they just absolutely dominate the market. And for this story, we spoke with David Hammond, a public health professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, who has published research on the e-cigarette industry for years. And he told us that Juul's compact size is part of what makes it so appealing to students.

Kids have told us that they're easy to hide. So, you know, most 15, 16-year-olds don't want their teachers or parents to know these things are so sleek, they just pop right in your pocket. And if you don't really look at it, it does look like a memory sticker flash drive. We also spoke to Robin Kovale, the CEO of Truth Initiative, which is an anti-tobacco nonprofit organization.

And Kovale told us while there's no doubt that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes, Juul is unique because of the high nicotine content. One of the things that we knew is that the nicotine content in most e-cigarettes up until recently was not as high as in a regular cigarette. But with Juul, one Juul pod is equal to a pack of cigarettes, that presents a pretty big addiction liability, especially for a young person

who's using nicotine for the first time. Truth has even launched a campaign called Safer Does Not Equal Safe to highlight some of the potential impacts that nicotine for the first time. Truth has even launched a campaign called Safer Does Not Equal Safe to highlight some of the potential impacts that nicotine can have on teens. Nicotine has effects on developing brains. The younger you are when you get addicted to nicotine, the harder it may be to quit later. There are cognitive impacts. There's even associations between becoming addicted to nicotine and your brain

Susceptibility to other forms of addiction She also said she was worried the products like Juul were normalizing nicotine use also citing some studies that found that young people who vape Have an increased risk of moving to traditional cigarettes now in response to some of the backlash and the criticism around the high nicotine content Juul did introduce lower nicotine pods for two of its flavors earlier this year It's mint and Virginia tobacco flavors now have 3% nicotine options compared Juul did introduce lower nicotine pods for two of its flavors earlier this year. Its mint and Virginia tobacco flavors now have 3% nicotine options compared to the standard 5%. But even so, the popularity of these cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul among teens has remained

one of the FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's biggest concerns. And in fact, following the issuing of warning letters, the FDA launched a surprise inspection of Juul's headquarters last month, seizing documents related to its sales and marketing plans. And actually on that note, Hammond told us there's a reason why Juul's previous marketing tactics

have received so much attention from authorities. Well, I think the type of marketing that Juul's engaged in, to my understanding, has changed. But I can tell you this, if you wind back the clock, six, eight months, whatever it was, were those ads appealing to kids? Absolutely. I mean, like the tobacco companies, they would say, oh, all of our models are of age. We don't use youth models. If you look at the social media campaign, if you look at the ads, they're great. They're modern. They're sleek. They look fun. They're lifestyle-oriented. And so we really shouldn't be surprised that these products have been appealing to kids.

And the thing is, the FDA's focus on Juul does seem to have changed how the company is now marketing its products. Over the last month, its social media presence is almost exclusively focused on older users who are using the product to quit traditional tobacco. This, rather than advertising Jewel as a lifestyle product. Oh, I've been smoking for 63 years now. People were looking at you like saying, you know, you smell of cigarettes. And then I used to start sneaking them. I'm in like a closet. Is that right to live like that? No. So after a while, you know, that's when I said to him when he introduced me to the Juul, it was perfect. Satisfies my taste and I don't have to sneak around. And a spokesperson for Juul Labs told us in a statement that the company has

actually been discussing ideas with the FDA to combat underage Juuling. And according to Juul, the company will soon release a plan that will quote, outline further actions we will take to keep the Juul device out of the hands of young people. Adding, we want to be part of the solution in preventing underage use, and we believe it will take industry and regulators working together to restrict youth access. As I mentioned, this isn't just a Juul issue.

They have a lot of market share, but they're not the only one. If you just do a quick search on Instagram with Juul or one of the other versions of the hashtag, you'll find tons of examples. You have established online celebrities like Mia Khalifa doing spots for Eon Smoke, and really hitting on the promotion of this is a lifestyle. She talks about matching a smoking device to your outfit.

All of these Juul compatible pod flavors with 25% off and an Eon device to match every outfit. They also have other incredibly popular people like Scott Disick, who has over 20 million followers on Instagram. Hey, what's up? I just found this new vape pen called Eon Smoke They also have other incredibly popular people like Scott Disick, who has over 20 million followers on Instagram. Hey, what's up? I just found this new vape pen called Eon Smoke

and it's actually unreal. And what's even sicker is all the pieces are compatible to Juul. And I just found one, which is mango, and I absolutely love it. Try it. Swipe up and give it a whirl. And what Disick actually mentioned

in that sponsored post is important. He talked about the mango flavor. Because that's another thing Gottlieb and the FDA are focused on, the flavors. We're going to take steps as well to reduce their appeal. And that's going to mean some restrictions on the flavored products. It's really the flavored products that are driving the youth use. They're the most popular products among kids. Juul offers flavors such as mango, creme brulee, fruit medley.

Also, other companies go even further in the types of flavors that could be enticing teens. We have flavors out there. It's not just cotton candy and peanut butter and jam. One of my all time favorites is unicorn horn. There's cereal milk flavor. You know, I think a lot of folks would suggest that we don't need those flavors for adult smokers.

Your 50 year old smoker who's trying to quit. And we know that candy and those types of flavors actually preferentially target kids. Now while the FDA and organizations like Truth Initiative have continued to focus on how products like Juul are impacting young people, other public health advocates actually say demonizing this industry is doing far more harm than good. They argue that traditional cigarette smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and arguing that we should actually be promoting e-cigarettes and vaporizers as a much safer alternative. Much in the same way the public health community has embraced clean needle exchange programs for drug users. And David Sweenor, who's the chair of the advisory board at the Center for Health, Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Ottawa,

really emphasized this point, and also telling us that the amount of attention being focused on youth usage is actually detracting from the product's potential to save the lives of adult smokers. Cigarettes are an incredibly deadly delivery system. So cigarettes will kill well over half of the world's drug users. They're killing over half a million Americans a year. They have killed over 5 million Americans in a little over a decade since the FDA got its authority to regulate tobacco products. The FDA has done virtually nothing about cigarettes. It's spending its time looking at the low- risk alternatives and putting barriers in the way there. So

I think what we should recognize is the reason we've got this problem with all those deaths is not the nicotine, it's the smoke. Cigarettes are just a rater in the delivery system. Swinner also pointed out that countries that have promoted nicotine alternatives to a traditional cigarette like a Swedish oral tobacco product called Snus, have seen major declines in the traditional smoking rate as a result. Cigarette smoking in Norway fell by half in just 10 years since they got access to that Swedish Snus product. We've seen Japan, a quarter of the cigarette market, has disappeared in just two and a half years because of an alternative product that heats but doesn't burn tobacco. So you're not sucking smoke in here at all. Iceland reduced smoking by 40% in just three years by giving alternative products.

It's substitution, it's harm reduction, it works. However, the public health professor that we spoke with, David Hammond, he said we just don't have enough data yet to determine the long-term benefits or harm of these products. But also he says that regulation of the industry is the key to ensuring that companies like Juul end up serving as a successful alternative to traditional tobacco. The trick is, you know, it's going to take us 10 or 20 years to figure out what vaping in general and Juul specific does in terms of health effects. But let me be really clear because there's a lot of confusing media out there. There's no question that vaping is less harmful than traditional

tobacco smoking cigarettes. There's also no question that vaping is likely to be harmful. I think we can tweak these products so they don't bring new kids in the market, but we can still make them available to adults. That probably means not having cotton candy flavor on the market, but we'll see what the FDA and other countries do. Actually, on that note, the Washington Post is now reporting that next week the FDA will officially announce a ban on the sale of fruit and candy flavored e-cigs. However, reportedly, this ban will not apply to retail shops or specialty retail stores, but will force Juul to only sell tobacco, mint, and menthol flavors. And what I'll say as far as my personal takeaway from this is I'm a little split. I would say like 90 to 10. I am largely of the mindset

that anything that is not a cigarette for a. I would say like 90 to 10. I am largely of the mindset that anything that is not a cigarette for a person that would normally smoke a cigarette and can't quit is fantastic. Right, but that's coming from the thinking of someone that has a bad habit replacing it with, not a good habit, but a not as bad habit. And the only part of me that's really concerned about this

is with the kids. I mean, you have this cutesy product, delicious flavors, but ultimately it is a delivery system for something that is addictive. Now how addictive is nicotine? I will personally never know because I have never smoked a cigarette. Actually, correction, I did one time smoke a spliff.

Luckily I think it was barely a spliff. But a big part of the reason I've never really smoked cigarettes was because my parents smoked. I consider that a blessing. Every morning you'd hear that chorus of coughing. The smell and the edginess if they didn't have any or they might not have any in the future.

My mom ended up quitting, my dad ended up vaping. But I think that's because of my limited personal experience with it, I really do want to pass the question off to you. Do you think that the FDA should continue to heavily focus on the industry given the trends we've seen among young users? Also, do you think the fears around these devices are totally overblown and that products like Juul are actually going to save countless lives? Right, by converting people from traditional tobacco products to this? And I'd love to know your thoughts on this, but I'd also really love to know your kind of background. Like, are you an adult out there in the real world?

Are you in college? Are you in high school or lower? Do you jewel or do you see a ton of it around you? Feel free to use an anonymous account so no one thinks you're a narc. At any point, let me know what you're thinking down below. But with that said, I hope you enjoyed this different kind of special Friday show.

If you did like it, let us know by hitting that like button. It helps support the show. Also, if you're new here, you want to make sure you don't miss new videos, which we post one every weekday at least. Be sure to hit that subscribe button. Maybe even ring that bell because when notifications work, that's great. Also, if you missed the last Philip DeFranco show, you want to catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch that. Or if you're in the mood for something lighter, we did a little test video called Feel Good Friday. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranranco you've just been filled in i love yo faces and i'll see you monday