Parents cautioned about new vape trend hitting Lincoln

There's a new vape trend and even though it's for people 18 and older, students say they see it in their schools. It's called Juuling and the device looks like a USB.

The JUUL devices have only been in Lincoln shops for about four months and smoke stores said it's already very popular, so popular that teachers are being warned to watch out for the dangers of the new device.

JUUL's are small, but one puff is powerful.

"The nicotine that's inside a Juul is going to be salt based nicotine that's a higher concentration of nicotine than the regular e-cig juice that's here," said David Rozenfeld.

Rozenfeld runs All in One Smoke Shop downtown on O street. He said the JUUL is just a brand name. The company JUUL reached out and said "JUUL Lab's mission is to eliminate cigarette smoking by offering existing adult smokers a true alternative to cigarettes. JUUL is not intended for anyone else," said a JUUL spokesperson.

And here in Lincoln it's selling fast.

"In the past 6 months this thing has just been flying off the shelves," said Rozenfeld.

He said it's popular because the buzz the JUUL gives is almost identical to a cigarette but also because of it's small shape and convenience.

"It has a USB port kind of style to it which makes people basically like it since it's so small compared to the other round ones," said Rozenfeld.

But some teens think the size and shape of the product is geared towards them. Even though JUUL said "We strongly condemn the use of our product by minors, and it is in fact illegal to sell our product to minors. No minor should be in possession of a JUUL product,"

"I think that it's also very convenient for our youth to be able to hide it and I think that's part of the manipulative market that big tobacco is going through," said Miranda Shreves a student from John Brock school district.

"It's not just water vapor. It's not something that's just like a fun toy to play around with it's something serious than can really hurt your health," said Kallyn Antholz also a student from Johnson Brock school district.

Both teens marched at the Captiol today to protest tobacco companies. They said Juuling happens at their schools in the Johnson Brock district.

"It's not only a trend in my school, but I know it's a trend in bigger school's as well," said Shreves.

Rozenfeld said despite needing to be 18 to buy them JUULs can be highly addictive.

"Especially when kids or people who don't puff on these or never smoked a cigarettes a day in their life are picking it up because it's more of the cool thing to do that's definitely a bad habit to start," said Rozenfeld.

Rozenfeld said he is using the JUUL as he tries to quit smoking, and eventually step down to e-cigarettes.

The School Community Intervention and Prevention program has already begun giving information to Lincoln Public Schools about juuling and what to watch out for.

The JUUL is shaped like a flash drive or USB. The Nicotine amount is similar to a cigarette.

It can produce a quick head rush which is appealing to some teens.

It comes in scents so it can smell like perfume or lotion, and SCIP encourages parents to talk to their kids about Juuling and the dangers of Nicotine.

JUUL Lab's also told 1011 News that they have a program to educate, and enforce the proper use of JUULs. They encourage educators or parents to email them at youthprevention@juul.com