Minnesota Youth Vaping Trial of E-cigarette Maker Juul Opens

Edited by Mandy, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison personally opened his state's case against Juul Labs on Tuesday; the first of thousands of lawsuits against the e-cigarette maker over its alleged marketing to young people is going to play out in a courtroom.

Ellison said Minnesota is seeking more than $100 million in damages, accusing Washington, D.C.-based Juul of unlawfully targeting young people to get a new generation addicted to nicotine. The court seated an eight-woman, four-man jury Tuesday morning. Opening statements were expected to finish in the afternoon. 

Juul has faced thousands of lawsuits nationwide, but most have settled, including 39 with other states and U.S. territories. 

"We will prove how Juul and Altria deceived and hooked a generation of Minnesota youth on their products, causing both great harms to the public and great expense to the State to remediate that harm," Ellison said. After delivering part of the opening statements, he plans to hand the case to attorneys for two outside law firms.

The jury trial before Hennepin County District Judge Laurie Miller is expected to last about three weeks. The trial over the lawsuit by the state and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota lasted nearly four months before big tobacco companies settled, just ahead of closing arguments.

Juul said Minnesota's insistence on going to trial had deprived its citizens of some of the nearly $440 million in settlement money other states are using to reduce tobacco use.

"Effective interventions to address underage use of all tobacco products in Minnesota, including vapor, depends not on headline-driven trials, but on evidence-based policies, programs, and enforcement," Juul said.

Reference: Minnesota youth vaping trial of e-cigarette maker Juul opens