If Juul’s CEO was really “sorry” for addicting all those kids, he would stop fighting San Francisco’s sensible regulation

On the CNBC special on vaping that ran on July 15, 2019, Juul CEO Kevin Burns said “I’m sorry” for all the kids who are using his product and repeated the Juul line that it was all an accident that all those kids are buying their products. 

Apparently, he forgot all that social media marketing and parties they bought and all the parties theu threw for young adults.

If he was really sorry, Juul would not be spending $1.5 million (and likely more in the future) trying to trick voters into overturning San Francisco’s flavor ban, making it impossible to enforce existing laws like Tobacco 21, and preempting any regulation of e-cigs by the Board of Supervisors.  Juul would also not be spending money to overturn Livermore’s similar legislation.

It is important to emphasize is that all the SF (and Livermore) laws say is that Juul needs to submit an application to the FDA that convinces them that allowing the sale of Juul would be good for public health. 

Indeed, Juul could have submitted its application 3 years ago, in 2016.   Burns interview shows why they haven’t.  Burns shockingly admitted, neither he nor anyone at Juul knows the potential long term harms or impact of Juul.  He said, "Frankly, we don't know today.  We have not done the long-term longitudinal clinical testing that we need to do."

Indeed, in 10 months, Juul is going to submit a premarket application to the FDA that seeks to demonstrate that Juul is "appropriate for the protection of the public health," but their CEO just told millions of viewers around the world that they don't have a clue about the long-term impacts because they haven't done the necessary testing. 

No wonder they are, like their big brothers at Philip Morris, trying to bury San Francisco voters in a huge pile of money to keep selling their products (and making tons of money) without restriction, including overturning the ban on flavored e-cigs 68% of voters just upheld in the face of a massive industry campaign against it.