JUUL: VICE OR VIRTUE?

For sixty years now I've been bragging about Stanford University.  Some recent developments seem to have tarnished this reputation. 

First, there was that national admission scandal.  Their sailing coach, who accepted a $270,000 bribe, with the university getting a $500,000 donation, was convicted to serve an 18-month prison sentence, and the student was expelled.

Nationwide, there were 14 others who have pled guilty.  Felicity Huffman and William Macy only made a $15,000 donation to have their daughter's SAT "corrected."  Felicity got 2 weeks in jail and a fine of $30,000.

Well, that was embarrassing, but perhaps trivial, compared to a second controversy.  Been reading lately about e-cigarettes and the dominant company, Juul?  Fourteen years ago, as Stanford graduate students, James Monsees  (right) and Adam Bowen created the most detestable start-up firm in the world today, Juul.  In Hawaii, the Star-Advertiser had a poll, and asked:  Should the Legislature pass stricter regulations on vaping in the next session?  The response:

• 69%  Yes, it's clear that vaping can be dangerous
• 28%  No, more regulations aren't the answer
•   3%  Not sure

Last year, Altria (parent company of Marlboro) bought a 35% share for $12.8 billion.  Yesterday, I indicated that the crusade to find the God Particle at CERN, the Higgs Boson, cost around this amount.

Interestingly enough, Monsees and Bowen became friends during SMOKE breaks.  They were both trying to quit, and talked about devising a product that could help.  They founded Ploom Inc. in 2007, which later became Pax Labs.  Their vaporizer device is what Juul is selling.

Want to work there?  Their company has headquarters on San Francisco's Pier 70 with airy communal work spaces.  The 3,800 workforce enjoys a free lunch and everything Google-type firms provide.

Now valued at $38 billion, Juul emphasized that it is not Big Tobacco 2.0, for e-cigs are working to make smoking safer for adults.  While nicotine is addictive, it does not cause cancer.  When someone lights a tobacco-cig, 7,000 gaseous products are formed, of which 70 are known to cause cancer.

Worldwide, tobacco use kills 7 million/year, which is expected to increase to 8 million/year in 2030.  The tobacco industry in 2017 spent $9.36 billion promoting its product.

The National Cancer Institute estimated that if almost all U.S. smokers older than 15 switched to vapes, this would save up to 6.6 million lives.  Smoking kills almost half a million Americans annually.  Andy Tan of the Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center has been quoted to say:  If we look at it from the population perspective, it's likely that Juul could be lifesaving.

Time magazine reported on this subject as a cover story in a recent issue.  It picked Monsees and Bowen to its 100 most influential people list earlier this year.

While their original purpose was noble, and the ultimate consequence might well become a positive, this device has nevertheless become a Frankenstein monster.  For one, their marketing seems targeted for youths, and drew the ire of mothers.  If Juul had focused on adults, for now, all this hoo-ha could have been avoided.

Juul vaporizers heat a cocktail of nicotine salts, flavoring compounds, propylene glycol (sounds dangerous, but is recognized as safe and serves as an indirect food additive) and glycerine (also known as glycerol, and is used as a sweetener in the food industry, but also to treat wounds and burns).

Juul's vapes cost around $35.  A pod costs $4, and is good for 200 puffs, delivering  as much nicotine as a pack of 20 cigarettes, which can cost from $5 to $14, the latter in New York because of taxes.  There is no cigarette butt from a vape.  No ashes.  The secondary smoke is not harmful.

They are allowed into airports, but only in your carry-on bag.  Can you believe each vape has a lithium battery, and it is charged like your portable computer?

Thus what is the state of vaping around the world?

So it is clear the USA is a global "leader" in vaping.  Regarding Juul, the U.S. vaping crisis has now claimed 21 lives (total for many years) across 18 states, with more than a thousand illnesses.  Remember, more than 1300 Americans die daily from smoking.  What happened to that crisis?  More as a knee-jerk reaction, the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Juul, accusing the company of violating federal regulations by promoting its vapes as a safer option than traditional cigarettes.  First, there are no regulations, yet, and second, e-cigarettes are, indeed, safer than the tobacco kind.

In the meantime, the United Kingdom, #2 in vaping, continues to say that vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking.   Banned in seven countries, the UK promotes vaping!  So who is right and what is happening?

About the title, we all accept virtue as good and vice as sinful.  Surprisingly enough, vices can be okay.  From Business Insider, these are all good vices:  sleeping in, smoking marijuana, snacking on candy and chocolate, biting your nails, drinking alcohol, going on vacation, having lots of sex, guzzling coffee and getting a massage.  Take sex, for example, the Centers for Disease Control reported that sexually transmitted disease cases last year rose to a record high:  2.8 million in 2018.  Can you imagine the havoc this is causing to marriages, relationships and life in general?  Where are the protests on this vice?  Almost anything can be vice or virtue depending on the circumstance and amount.


Is my drinking alcohol a vice?  Sure, but this makes my life happier.  I do have a humidor with some expensive cigars.  I once smoked them on a golf course while riding.  That was years ago.  Anyone want them?  I never smoked cigarettes.  Maybe I should try vaping, just for the experience.  Another tiny vice at my age can't be all that terrible.

So is Juul a vice or a virtue?  Clearly, both.  If vaping Juul can increase the life expectancy of cigarette smokers by up to ten years, certainly it should be considered to be virtuous for them.  I think most of this current hoopla is misplaced.  There is something about the concern of mothers, and the influence over the media, that overwhelms logic.  Juul today seems universally damned because of this compelling societal crusade.  Time will tell.  Maybe Monsees and Bowen will someday be honored for their gizmo.

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The good news is that Hagibis is down to Category 4 strength.  The eye is predicted to skirt Izu Peninsula on Saturday (remember, Japan is one day ahead, so Saturday there is Friday in the U.S.), then head in the general direction of Yokoyama Harbor (my departure port on the Diamond Princess next month) and Tokyo.

From Nagoya north, flights will be affected and train schedules will be iffy.  At least two Rugby World Cup games have been cancelled.  After Tokyo, Typhoon Hagibis will move back into the Pacific Ocean, but still impact northern Honshu and Hokkaido.

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