Paul Bass Photo
In town Tuesday announcing first $1.5 million in Juul bucks: DMHAS Deputy Colleen Harrington, Attorney General William Tong, city Maritza Bond, Mayor Justin Elicker, community services chief Mehul Dalal.
The state’s attorney general joined New Haven officials to proclaim the death of cool — at least for a certain e‑cigarette manufacturer.
The attorney general, William Tong, held a press conference at Floyd Athletic Center adjoining Hillhouse High School to announce the state has received the first $1.5 million of an eventual $16 million expected over the next six to 10 years from a court settlement reached with the Juul Labs vaping products company.
That’s Connecticut’s share from a $438.5 million settlement Tong helped lead on behalf of a 34-state consortium over the role the once-high-flying, now struggling company’s youth-oriented marketing practices played in leading millions of kids to develop addictive nicotine vaping habits. Under the settlement, Connecticut and other states will devote the money to nicotine “cessation, prevention, and mitigation” programs.
The money’s important because those programs work, Tong said at the press conference. More important, he argued, are the settlement’s ban on Juul marketing its products through celebrities and social influencers, on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, on public transportation, with cartoons or a range of banned flavors, or in any media outlet with an audience less than 85 percent adult.
“They’ve made it cool. That’s how they get you,” Tong said. Click on the above video to watch him say more about that.
An estimated 14 percent of American high-schoolers vape regularly, as do an estimated 3 percent of middle schoolers.
Tong pointed to the success of programs that slashed traditional cigarette smoking along with the habit’s allure.
“We’ve cut smoking in half. It’s demonstrably not cool in many circles to smoke cigarettes. These programs do make a difference. We have to put resources into them,” he said.
Ready for any proceeds that may come New Haven's way: Dalal and Bond at Tuesday's presser.
Will any of the initial $1.6 million of that new state money come specially to New Haven?
”I should hope so,” Tong said, surrounded by New Haven officials eager for the injection. But he said it’s too early to tell: The state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) will convene a group to decide how to allocate the money. DMHAS Deputy Commissioner Colleen Harrington said that group’s members haven’t been selected yet.
Tong was also asked about criticism of states directing proceeds from a previous successful lawsuit against tobacco companies to fill general budget holes or to already funded smoking-cessation and prevention efforts. The attorney general replied that the new Juul agreement contains “guardrails” to prevent that from happening. Click on the above video to watch the full response to that question.
But smoking/eating marijuana is, apparently o.k., with the AG.........today.....and as long as it remains 'progressively' popular.
Just another flavor of cool-aid for the proletariat.