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READ MOREGlendale Unified School District is joining the Los Angeles Unified School District and government officials in a lawsuit against the popular manufacturer of e-cigarettes, JUUL. Student vaping incidences throughout these districts have increased significantly in recent years.
Unfortunately, vaping is a public health epidemic in schools. Vaping has not only affected individual learning, but it has led to other problems as school resources are diverted away from education and towards prevention and enforcement of JUUL related violations. Schools have suffered a rise in student absences due to disciplinary action or sickness, which have caused a reduction in district state funding.
JUUL has dominated the e-cigarette industry and now controls approximately 75% of the market. Over a million JUUL e-cigarettes were sold between 2015 and 2017, using JUUL’s market strategy targeting school-aged children with flavors such as “bubble gum.”
In just one year, between 2017 and 2018, e-cigarette use increased 78 percent among high school students and 48 percent among middle school students. JUUL has intentionally created not just an e-cigarette product, but also a culture among today’s youth. The company uses marketing tactics which include pervasive use of social media campaigns, flavors combined with nicotine to motivate e-cigarette use, as well as a product design that resonates with tech-savvy youth. JUUL advertisements feature young looking adults and colorful backgrounds.
The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and an abatement remedy to combat the e-cigarette epidemic, which has severely affected the school districts by interfering with normal school operations. The districts are also seeking compensatory damages to provide relief from the district’s financial losses as a result of students being absent from school and the costs to arrange outreach and education programs regarding the risk of vaping. The school districts seek cost recovery for the time, energy, money, and resources diverted from education in response to the JUUL epidemic.
The attorneys at Baron & Budd pursue litigation to protect people and their communities from the effects of dangerous and diverse issues including: harmful pharmaceuticals as well as highly addictive opioids, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, environmental contamination including delivering ground-breaking settlements for the California wildfire victims, e-cigarette manufacturers, fraudulent and illegal banking practices, motor vehicle manufacturing and accidents, False Claims Act cases, and other consumer fraud issues.