The Scary Truth about Flavored Vapes

Fruity flavors line the walls of gas stations, vape shops, and grocery stores.

The year is 2017 and you are walking into your neighborhood gas station to grab some snacks for the road, and you are met with a gigantic neon sign displaying only four letters. “JUUL” is displayed proudly above the gas station counter, and you ask the employee what the sign is for. The worker proceeds to show to you what a JUUL looks like; a small, metallic device that delivers nicotine in a very similar fashion to that of a cigarette. Intrigued to learn more, you purchase your own. There were a lot of flavors of “pods” to choose from, and you wanted to try multiple flavors, so you got a JUUL “starter kit” which included a device, charger, and four flavored JUUL pods. The four flavors to choose from were Creme Brulee, Fruit Medley, Mint, and Virginia Tobacco. To understand how we got here, let’s go back to where it all began.

The History of Vaping

Vaping has been around for a long time- but didn’t get widespread publicity until 2017 from JUUL

Although the vape market absolutely exploded in 2017 with the increasingly popular JUUL device, the first patent for a nicotine vaporizer happened 13 years earlier, in 2004. In 2004, Hon Lik got his invention on file; an electronic alternative to smoking cigarettes. These electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, quickly became…