There has been a lot of talk lately about Juul and the San Francisco vapor ban. Sometimes it feels like I’m not covering news stories, I’m covering Juul stories.
I get it, they are the big dog, and their ties to Big Tobacco are an easy way to vilify the company and sew seeds of mistrust.
Vice recently published an interview with Jeffrey Wigand, the guy who is responsible for blowing the lid off of Big Tobacco’s shenanigans. He’s also been the puppet master behind San Francisco’s vaping ban.
During the interview Wigand repeatedly admits that he’s not concerned about adults switching. He’s worried about Juul marketing to kids.
Despite Juul’s repeated denials, the callbacks to Big Tobacco are just too much for Wigand. It turns out that this may go deeper than simply saving the kids at the expense of saving the lives of millions of smokers. It seems to me like it’s personal.
Given all of the ammo you have to work with, like candy-flavored tobacco, you must be enjoying this, especially the opportunity to give your old nemesis Philip Morris another poke in the eye?
I dont want to just blind them in one eye. I want to drive a stake through their heart. I want to kill them. I want em gone. I thought that was happening when the state attorneys general were suing the tobacco industry [in the 1990s]. Of the money we got, part of it was supposed to go to start helping people not start [smoking]. And to quit. Theyve never used the money as it was intended; they used it to fix roads, bridges, and even morgues instead.
I Want to Kill Them’: Big Tobacco’s Worst Enemy Is Coming for JUUL – VICE
