The biggest e-cigarette company in the United States, JUUL Labs, has halted the sale of its flavored vaping products. This means that the company’s customers can no longer buy their flavored vape pods from their online store, however, some retailers are continuing to sell them both online and at local stores. For stores that continue to sell flavored JUULpods, supplies are limited and will eventually run out unless the e-cig giant resumes selling them.

While there is much talk of a federal ban on flavored e-cigarettes in the US, such a ban has not yet gone into effect. JUUL’s decision to halt the sale of their flavored vaping products, excluding tobacco and menthol pod flavors, has been voluntary. The move has left many of the company’s customers concerned, as evidently not all JUUL users are keen to using the company’s menthol and tobacco flavored vape pods that remain available both at local retailers and on the company’s website. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some retailers have jacked up the price on their remaining JUUL pod inventory.

US Vapers Search For Alternatives

In some cases, e-cigarette users in the US have begun to stockpile vaping supplies over concerns stemming from both local and federal bans on vaping products. Some have moved from buying flavored e-liquids to buying do-it-yourself e-liquid crafting supplies, such as nicotine salts and liquid nicotine, flavoring, propylene glycol (PG), and vegetable glycerin (VG). When purchased separately and mixed by the user, these ingredients can dramatically reduce the cost of e-liquid for consumers.

Fruit medley, mango, creme brulee, and mint JUULpods were all once available to adult customers in the US. As of present, none of these pod flavors are for sale on the company’s online store. Historically, mint JUULpods have been the company’s top-selling pods. For those wondering whether mint and menthol taste the same, they do not. The mint is considerably sweeter and tastes quite different.

JUUL Continues To Sell Flavored Pods In The UK

Across the pond, JUUL Labs continues to sell its flavored pods to customers in the United Kingdom. The regulatory climate in the UK is quite different from the US as far as vaping is concerned. Public Health England has released the findings of its government-mandated e-cigarette evidence review and the findings have helped bolster vaping’s case. One of the report’s key findings points to e-cigarette use as likely being at least 95% less harmful than conventional cigarette use, which in turn has provided regulators with justification for allowing access to such products to remain.

JUUL Labs currently offers a range of pod flavors in the UK, some of which are exclusive to the UK market. These flavors include golden tobacco, glacier mint, mango nectar, royal creme, and alpine berry. Apple orchard flavored JUULpods, a UK exclusive, are not presently available for purchase on the company’s UK online store.

JUUL Is Not As Popular With Vapers In The UK

In the UK, JUUL’s products are not nearly as popular as they are in the US. Vapers in the UK, much like US vapers, have access to a wide range of vaping products, including thousands of e-liquid options from various manufacturers around the world. While JUUL’s e-cigarette devices and corresponding pods are not designed to be refilled by users, many companies offer competing products that are designed to be refilled by users. Vapes with refillable tanks and cartridges are quite popular among UK vapers, which in turn has led to an explosion in bottled e-liquid sales. One type of bottled e-liquid, in particular, has risen rapidly in popularity in the UK as TPD regulations restrict the amount of nicotine in UK e-liquid: shortfills. E-liquid shortfills are bottles that contain e-liquid with no nicotine in them, leaving a small amount of space at the top of the bottle for users to add their own nicotine. UK vape shops like Vapester sell both e-liquid shortfills and nicotine shots that are clearly intended to be added to the shortfills in order to infuse them with the desired amount of nicotine. By buying shortfills and adding nicotine shots, UK vapers are able to easily circumvent the TPD restriction on the nicotine concentration of e-liquids sold in the UK.

The UK government’s decision to regulate the nicotine strength of vape juice sold in the UK has resulted in JUUL Labs offering different strength pods to UK customers than US customers. In the US, JUUL’s customers can buy their pods with 5% nicotine concentration. They also have the option of buying 3% strength pods in the US. For UK customers, the highest strength JUULpods contain only 1.7% nicotine strength, which by one calculation translates into 20mg/ml. This means that the strongest pods that the company sells in the UK contain less nicotine than the weakest pods that they sell in the US.

Currently, JUUL offers two nicotine strengths in the UK: 9mg/ml and 18mg/ml. New vaping technology incorporated into the company’s pods earlier this year is designed to ensure more consistent delivery of nicotine per puff than the company’s prior pod technology.

JUUL Under Investigation In The US

In the United States, federal prosecutors announced an investigation into JUUL Labs earlier this year. The company’s marketing practices have also landed them in hot water on a more local level with various states announcing their own investigations into the company.

Perhaps unrelated to JUUL’s products, a rash of vaping-related illnesses and deaths across the US have sparked concerns and calls for new regulations. The CDC reported that vitamin E acetate is suspected to have been used as a cutting agent in some unregulated THC vaping products and may be responsible for some vaping-related injuries. Regardless of what the culprit may be, regulators in some states have moved to ban vaping products, however, such bans have been met with pushback from vaping industry associations that have filed lawsuits in opposition of bans on vaping products. The climate has left many vapers wondering how future regulations may impact their ability to continue vaping. With much uncertainty in the air, many vapers across the US are unsurprisingly concerned with what the future may hold for those who vape.

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