Weekly Mass Torts Bulletin 2023-May-1

King County's legal action against the e-cigarette manufacturer Juul will result in a settlement of more than $23 million.

In a 2019 lawsuit, King County charged Juul Labs Inc. of intentionally promoting and advertising its flavored vaping products to children and teens.

King County is entitled to up to $23.8 million, less legal fees and other expenses, as part of a global settlement deal between Juul and thousands of local governments and people, according to a document from the county's attorneys. According to the document, King County may be entitled to up to an extra $1.8 million as part of a bonus settlement deal.

According to the county, the settlement funds would support regional initiatives aimed at reducing cigarette usage. The health and wellbeing of our children come first, and we cannot allow the advancements we have made to be jeopardised by continuous teenage nicotine use, stated King County Executive in a prepared statement.

This settlement will fund initiatives to discourage young people from using tobacco and vapor products and will offer tools to help those who are already using them stop.

Products sold by Juul Labs, Inc. employ a heating element to turn a nicotine solution into an aerosol that the user subsequently inhales. Juul was forced to pay almost $24 million to the state of Washington in April 2022 as a result of a lawsuit that claimed the business intentionally made its products appealing to minors and misrepresented how addictive the product may be.

The Food and Drug Administration imposed a nationwide ban on the sale of Juul electronic cigarettes in June 2022. The corporation appealed to the federal government, and the prohibition was reversed. Up to further assessment of the company's marketing application, the appeal will be upheld.

National medical professionals will talk about the implications of opioid abuse and addiction that go beyond the impacts on the users' physical and mental health.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ), the Office of the New Jersey Coordinator for Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES), and the Opioid Education Foundation of America (OEFA) will make the choice in the upcoming lesson of the Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series.

According to PDFNJ Executive Director, opioid use, abuse, and addiction can have effects on those who are not using drugs or alcohol and who are not focused on their own health and well-being. This webinar will provide you crucial knowledge on the long-term effects of opioid abuse and addiction as well as what you can do to stop them.

The webinar will be the fourth in the learning series for 2023's Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day. This year's Learning Series will cover a wide range of topics related to the opioid epidemic, including educating families about proper opioid use and potential misuse, opioid alternatives for youths through seniors, the rise of polysubstance use, and the intersection of race, culture, and the opioid epidemic. PDFNJ will be working with OEFA and NJ CARES to carry out this year's Learning Series. NJ CARES is in charge of overseeing addiction-fighting efforts across the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series was launched in 2020 to inform New Jersey people on the several facets of the opioid crisis and its effects on the state and the country. It is a part of PDFNJ's statewide campaign, Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day, which has been observed every year on October 6 since 2016 in order to inform citizens and prescribers about the dangers of prescription opioids and to increase awareness of the opioid issue in the state.

The 2022 Learning Series offered 12 webinars with different presenters covering all facets of the opioid crisis, with a total audience of more than 8,000 viewers. According to NJ CARES statistics, there were probably 2,900 drug overdose deaths in New Jersey in 2022. These overdose deaths featured opioids in a significant percentage of cases, including heroin, prescription medications, and synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Attorney General said that Juul Labs, a vaping business, will pay West Virginia $7.9 million to resolve a claim that it advertised to minors.

In this case, Juul is charged with violating the state's Consumer Credit and Protection Act through the design, manufacture, marketing, and sale of e-cigarettes. Health authorities in West Virginia revealed in a study from 2020 that more than 60% of the state's high school students had tried e-cigarettes in 2019, up from 44% in 2017.

According to the lawyer, this settlement holds businesses like Juul accountable for not copying the marketing tactics of big tobacco and targeting children. Plaintiffs in Juul's action claim the company misled customers about the potency of its nicotine, misrepresented the nicotine equivalent of its products to traditional cigarettes, and underestimated the risks of addiction that come with such high nicotine levels.

The troubled e-cigarette firm, which last year fired hundreds of employees and resolved thousands of lawsuits consolidated in a federal court in California brought by families of Juul users, school districts, local governments, and Native American tribes, has reached yet another deal.

A two-year probe by 33 states investigating the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products resulted in the San Francisco business agreeing to pay roughly $440 million in September. In 2019, Juul withdrew the majority of its flavors and stopped all U.S. advertising due to legal action and government penalties.

To safeguard the public's health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Juul to cease promoting and distributing its products in the country in June of last year. The FDA later put a temporary stop on its ruling and is now reviewing the company's goods after receiving a legal challenge from Juul. One in four adults in West Virginia smoked in 2018, according to a survey by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the highest prevalence in the country.

Juul Labs stated in a statement that this deal with the West Virginia Attorney General reflects yet another step in the company's continued effort to address concerns from the past. The parameters of the agreement mirror our current business practices, which were introduced as part of our company-wide reset in the autumn of 2019. They also give financial resources to further combat underage usage and create cessation programs.

We expect that some monies will go directly to programs to decrease the use of combustible cigarettes and enhance public health in the state of West Virginia, which has the highest cigarette smoking rate in the United States, the business stated.