I have never seen so many addicts, none of whom look at all healthy, trying to convince themselves that their drug is somehow better and even aspirational. I fail to see how trading an addiction for the same addiction (under more socially acceptable branding) is something to be proud of. Nicotine is nicotine is nicotine and it is highly addictive.
When you advertise it to young people, young people are going to become addicted. That is what Juul did, while also claiming that they were targeting current smokers and, in doing so, singlehandedly created a whole new generation of addicts.
I find it difficult to believe that this wasn't intentional. When asked to stop making flavors, which were what attracted kids to their products, they tellingly refused to do so. They saw an opportunity to make millions of dollars and they jumped on it and never thought twice about the people they could hurt.
Whether or not the lung damage shown to kids came from Vitamin E, Juul was the company responsible for creating the addiction in the first place. It is well known within the addiction and recovery community that addicts gain a tolerance for drugs and then seek out other drugs to try to get a better high, and that is exactly what happened.
Vaping is still relatively new, so we don't really know what its long term effects are. Juul didn't care to wait to find out and, for some reason, found it unreasonable to go through the FDA approval process. But, if someone inhales chemicals into their lungs, whether it be nicotine or meth or marijuana, it's going to cause damage.
To claim that no one has died from an e-cigarette is misleading. I'm sure Philip Morris could claim the same about cigarettes for years - until lung cancer came along. A more accurate statement may be that no one has died of an e-cigarette yet.
Disappointingly, this entire documentary seemed to be more about trying to glamorize Juul than it was about indicting them, as it should have been. It was far too long and spent far too much time trying to make the founders seem like they were "good guys" and not enough time showing the repercussions of their actions. It just seemed like a last ditch attempt to save a company that, quite frankly, doesn't deserve to be saved.
Juul used the same advertising as Big Tobacco, targeted the same people as Big Tobacco, and used Big Tobacco money in their business. It was no surprise to me that Big Tobacco eventually bought out their company. Juul and Big Tobacco are one and the same. They just wanted to make cigarettes cool again.
