Connecticut Attorney General William Tong joined Cheddar News to discuss his leading role in Juul's near-$440 million settlement in a 33-state probe for teen marketing tactics and why states across America are taking a hard stance on harmful vape marketing going forward. "This is just a continuing battle against addiction, part of a larger fight that, that I'm helping to lead among the states against addiction broadly."

Opening Bell

Connecticut AG on Juul's $439M Settlement in Teen Marketing Tactic Case

e cigarette maker Juul is in the legal hot seat. The company has been ordered to pay nearly $440 million to settle a two year investigation by 33 states, which looked into the company's marketing tactics used for the under age teen demographic investors found that jewel marketed its cigarettes to teens and tweens through launch parties, product giveaways and social media posts using youthful looking models. Cheddar news. Senior reporter Chloe Aiello spoke to the man leading the coalition of states against jules harmful marketing Connecticut. Attorney General William tong take a look. I think this goes a long way to protecting kids and families in Connecticut. It's an epidemic in our state and across the country. More than a quarter of high school kids in Connecticut report using bait products. And for a long time, Jewel was the dominant player marketing the kids. But um, this takes a big bite out of jewel. It gets them out of marketing to kids. They are no longer the dominant player. And so I think this will be very effective in helping to stop the growth and increase in surge in youth vaping. Now to your point, you had mentioned those restrictions on marketing. Additional terms of this deal, of course, do you think that's going to actually help combat teen vaping in Connecticut and beyond? Yeah, this is a huge piece of why jewel was so effective. You know, they don't use traditional print media, television radio. They went straight to instagram facebook. Tiktok went straight to kids with, um, appealing marketing with young trendy looking models, influencers, um, free product samples and, and promotions. They have to stop all of that. Um, and they can no longer target young people. They can no longer put up billboards. Um, they can no longer use these social media outlets to target kids 13 to 17 in Connecticut. Um, And, and I think that this is where the problem really is. Uh, and these are some of the strongest, what we call injunctive terms. Some of the strongest mandates in any settlement agreement in any case in which I've been involved as attorney general. You mentioned a couple of statistics earlier about teen use of vaping. And you know, from the recent monitoring the future study, we know that these rates are continuing to take up to about 16% in 2021, from about 6% in 2017. What do you think the health ramifications specifically of jewels, marketing practices that this case sought to address will be moving forward? So going forward, I think we're still gonna be stuck with this problem. You know, I don't, I don't have any illusions, um, that this will stop youth vaping because it's an epidemic. It can't stop tomorrow. We don't have the ability to make, not just high school there stop and young people, people in college in high school, but there are middle schoolers who are using Vape products and, and drooling or using other similar products. Uh, and so what we're facing is thousands upon thousands of young people who are exposed to popcorn lung and addiction and the adverse health effects of vaping, many of which the science has not yet begun to scratch the surface and understand. Um, and so long term were to be dealing with the health ramifications of this epidemic in the same way that we're still dealing with the long term health effects of smoking. And to your point, you know, this is cracking down on Jewel, but jewel is far from the only Vape company out there. As you mentioned, it's market share has tumbled from about 75% of the market to about a third. And there are still companies out there who are producing these vapes with flavors that could appeal to kids. Do you think this case will serve as a cautionary lesson to them or will we have to see more crackdowns in the future? Well, it's, it's more than a lesson and deterrent. You know, it's a demonstration to the market that no matter how big you are and Jewel was once the dominant player, um, and control this entire market, um, no matter how dominant you are, if you engage in illegal practices targeting young people and marketing to them and using product placements and influencers, um, we will stop you and we will come after you and state attorneys general are united on this republicans democrats. I'm a democrat. Um, my colleagues in texas and florida and elsewhere who are republicans are also part of this coalition and I am sure that every manufacturer of a product, every reseller understands that we are very serious about this and we're going to go after anybody who targets young people and breaks the law in trying to sell uh, these products to kids and to get them hooked. Now as attorney general, what are your broader ambitions for Connecticut when it comes to youth tobacco or vaping? Would you like to see even more restrictions? And are you hoping that this case sets a precedent for these policies moving forward? Yeah. This is part of a decades long work by attorneys general. Um, it started with the big tobacco settlements more than 20 years ago when I was a kid. And so I have a 16 year old and a 14 year old and 11 year old. Now they're the ones that are targeted by jewel and by other similar companies and by influencers and product placements. But when I was a kid, which is good to be a little while ago, you know, I was targeted by the big tobacco companies. And so when I was a kid, it was joe camel, that was the cool character. And before joe camel was the Marlboro man. And if you collected box tops, even though we couldn't buy cigarettes. If you collected box tops, you get cool swag. What's really disappointing and disheartening is that these same tactics reappeared again with jewel now they add flavors and, and all these other new angles and strategies. And so this is just a continuing battle against addiction, part of a larger fight that, that I'm helping to lead among the states against addiction broadly. Um, and some even more severe forms of addiction in the opioid addiction crisis. And so this is a public health emergency that requires all of our attention. And thanks again to Connecticut Attorney General William tongue and cheddar, senior reporter Chloe Aiello.