Both Kroger and Walgreens will stop selling vaping productsdue to growing reports of health problems with Juul and other e-cigarettes.

According to ABC News, Kroger announced on Oct. 7 that its stores and fuel centers would stop selling e-cigarettes after the current inventory is depleted.

Walgreens issued a statement the same day, saying the company made the decision to quit selling e-cigarette merchandise while health officials continue investigating the products.

Kroger and Walgreens join Walmart in halting e-cigarette sales. Walmart issued its decision in late September.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 1,299 lung injury cases associated with vaping have been documented in the U.S. as of Oct. 8. Twenty-six deaths in 21 states have been confirmed. All patients reported using a nicotine-based e-cigarette product, and most (but not all) had a history of using THC-containing products.

Cities and states are taking control of the vaping epidemic in their communities. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is enforcing a four-month ban on the sale of vape merchandise in his state, where he declared a public health emergency in late September. Both New York and Michigan have stopped the sale of flavored e-cigarette solutions.

In late June, NPR reported that San Francisco cited health problems with Juul and other e-cigs when it banned the sale and distribution of all e-cigarettes, even though Juul Labs has its corporate headquarters in the city.

According to a 2018 study called Monitoring the Future, sponsored by The National Institute on Drug Abuse at The National Institutes of Health, one out of five high school seniors said they had vaped in the past 30 days. That is nearly twice the number who had admitted to vaping in the past month when polled in 2017.

Vaping of nicotine products in the last 12 months increased by 8.9 percentage points among high school sophomores and 10.9 percent among high school seniors. Monitoring the Future authors said the increases are “the largest ever recorded for any substance in the 44 years that MTF has tracked adolescent drug use.”

Teen Warns of Health Problems with Juul

Little Rock, Ark. ABC Affiliate Channel 7 reported on a local teenager who was hospitalized due to vaping.

Erin Bell Griffin, the teen’s mother, had no idea her 17-year-old son Max had ever vaped, but he had been using e-cigarettes for about a year. He was in the hospital due to ulcerations and rips in his esophagus, which were caused by vaping. He knew something was wrong when he vomited blood.

Max told Channel 7 that he resisted vaping many times, but eventually gave in to his friends and tried it only once. Due to the high nicotine content, Max was addicted almost immediately. He said he got to the point where he was unable to concentrate on anything but getting another hit off an e-cigarette. He believes at least 70 percent of his fellow class members continue to vape, despite knowing about Max’s frightening health scare.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented 
for informational purposes only.