Alcoa City Schools are preparing for a lawsuit filed against the popular e-cigarette brand JUUL.
There has been a rise in electronic-cigarette use by juveniles and it’s negatively impacting schools. ACS wants the nation’s most popular e-cigarette brand to take responsibility for this rise in use by juveniles.
The school system plans to file against JUUL Labs and Altria. ACS alleges JUUL’s marketing campaign specifically targeted youth and teens.
ACS isn’t alone on this. Their lawsuit will be joining others across the country from school systems also impacted by the added responsibilities of resources policing, disciplining, and aiding students who are addicted to nicotine.
“JUUL’s conduct has exposed a new generation of children to record levels of nicotine addiction, and schools are uniquely impacted,” Beasley Allen Law Firm lawyer Joseph VanZandt said. “These lawsuits are designed to ensure JUUL pays for the damages incurred, not the Tennessee taxpayers who fund these public schools.”
“Youth e-cigarette usage is a serious public health concern for Tennessee,” Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery said. “Public health research shows that nicotine dependence and e-cigarette usage among youth are associated with increased likelihood of youth smoking, even among youth who are otherwise not likely to smoke.”
The U.S. House subcommittee on economic and consumer policy conducted a monthslong investigation of JUUL, including reviewing tens of thousands of internal documents, and concluded that it “deliberately targeted children in order to become the nation’s largest seller of e-cigarettes.”
Alcoa City Schools is joining more than 130 school districts in more than a dozen states suing JUUL Labs Inc. and other e-cigarette manufacturers for costs related to students’ vaping on campus. https://t.co/6Q6nvo8UgK
— DailyTimes (@DailyTimes) March 24, 2021
Photo| iStock
