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JUUL's popularity has grown dramatically.(Photo: Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Three young Wisconsiniteswho say JUUL's effective but false marketing to youth over social media led them to take up vaping and left them addicted to nicotine.

The teen and young adults from Milwaukee, Walworth County and a small city in Barron Countyhave all joined as plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that seeks to stop JUUL Labsand Altria, the tobacco giant that bought a $12 billion stake in JUUL two years ago, from continuing their marketing. The suit also seeks payments for various damages.

Neither company responded to requests for comment. The plaintiffs' attorneys did not return emails.

After Congress turned up the heat on JUUL in 2018, it tried to delete lots of its earlier advertising that the lawsuit says was clearly targeting users younger than the 25- to 34-year-olds it insisted were its intended customer base.

The 42-page complaint includes several examples from the company's "Vaporizer" campaign featuring attractive young people using and promoting JUUL products and at launch parties in major cities. It explains how JUUL employed social media influencers to help spread the word.

"Even though JUUL was paying these 'affiliates,'it instructed them that they needed to represent they were impartial, instructing affiliates that: '[a]t all times, you must clearly represent yourself and your web sites as independent from juulvapor.com.' the suit states.

The early message from all those efforts? Vaping is cooler and safer than smoking cigarettes. The suit says that vaping JUUL cartridges is actually more dangerous, delivering more nicotine more quickly than smoking, as well as oil-based substances.

More: New cases of severe lung injury in Wisconsin tied to vaping nicotine and THC

The suit seeks an injunction against JUUL's continued advertising, along with compensatory and punitive damages, based on claims of strict liability for defective design and failure to warn, fraud, negligence, breach of warranties, unjust enrichmentand deceptive trade practices.

The plaintiffs include Michelle Bain of Kenosha, whose son Jaedonstarted vaping with JUUL at 16, and died by suicide a year later, in June 2019. Others are Melinda Bowes of Elkhornand her minor daughter, who was 13 when she started JUULing; Malcolm Lucas of Milwaukee, who started at 15; and Danielle Hagen of Cumberland, in northwestern Wisconsin, who developed lung issues after she began vaping with JUUL products at age 20.

The lawsuit joins a flood of similar efforts around the country, including class actions and suits from school districts and state investigations. Dozens of federal cases from around the country have been consolidated before a single federal judge in NorthernCalifornia, where JUUL Labs is headquartered.

Teen vaping took off in 2016, according to the suit,JUUL sales jumping from 2 million units that year to 16 million in 2017. JUUL is believed to control about 75% of the vaping market in the U.S.

"By 2018, both the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner and the United States Surgeon General were calling underage e-cigarette usage 'an epidemic,' according to the suit.

ContactBruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Followhim on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.

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Young Wisconsin vapers sue JUUL, say false advertising led them to start vaping and develop nicotine addiction, health problems - Milwaukee Journal...