Summer time during elementary school, being at my neighborhood pool, we all waited eagerly to hear the song, because we knew when that jingle was in range, that meant the ice cream man was nearby. We would sprint to the fence with dollar bills we stole from our parents, racing to be first in line. The most popular purchases surprisingly weren't ice cream, rather Hubba Bubba gum, and candy cigarettes. We would all sit together exhaling the powered sugar inside the paper encasing it, feeling on top of the world.
Fast forward ten years. College is in full swing. Candy cigarettes are vintage and instead of a sugar high, were actually getting high. Aluminum USB's are the rage. We all know someone with one, with few of our friends being able to say they have never 'juuled'.
The Juul is a three inch piece of aluminum, with different flavor nicotine attachments available. Releasing water vapor it has turned into one of the most popular e-cigarettes on the market. Ranging from 35-50 dollars for the electronic and 14-24 dollars for nicotine pods, they are easily accessible to the public, if you are over the age of 18. With sales exceeding over one million entities excluding pods, the Juul has made a large impact in just the two years it has been on the market. With variety of colors and wraps to personalize your device, there are endless possibilities on what your Juul can look like.
With main uses being in social settings generation X is addicted, actually fixed to nicotine. Most if not all Juul owners know it is wrong. The self loathing is real with every inhalation, every swipe of our debit card for pods, and every time we feel we NEED a Juul hit. We were taught growing up how bad cigarettes were, yet we are addicted to the new technologically advanced cigarette. While cigarettes are by far worse with over 3,000 chemicals encased in its thin paper, nicotine, what makes cigarettes addictive, is the chemical in Juul's. One pod is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes, lasting a person on average 24 hours. If we heard someone smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, we would gag, but are we much better?
So what makes Juuls okay for us to use? Is it because it doesn't smell like a cigarette does? Is it because it is easy to smoke in public? Is it because of the variety of flavors we have access to? Maybe it's none of these reasons for you, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I am flying home to D.C. from school and the pilot announces on the intercom in a stern voice "absolutely no juuling," how one of the biggest rules at Dance Marathon FSU is you are not allowed to Juul, for there are patients there with respiratory issues.
Just weeks ago reports of Juuls causing lung cancer flooded social media. Parents called their kids asking if they Juul, Snapchat was full of stories of people flushing their device down the toilet, or chucking them out car windows. We were scared, for many reasons. Our health was the biggest concern, but how do you explain to the ones you love 'I am sick because I Juuled too much'. It's a sentence we are humored by because it's embarrassing and seems impossible. And maybe it is, maybe Juuls can't cause cancer or damage your lungs, but we all thought about it, we all googled articles to see if it was true.
To Juul or not to Juul? That is a personal decision I am not for or against. Your decision does not affect my life, only your own. Just some food for thought.
