Okemos High Schools is considering joining a nationwide litigation against JUUL and other vaping product manufacturers. Over 100 schools in Michigan have joined, claiming these products were marketed to children and therefore, caused damages to schools.
Lawyers Piotr M. Matusiak, from Thrun Law Firm, and William Shinoff, from Frantz Law Group presented the existing litigation to the Okemos Board of Education on February 28.
“It’s a litigation against vaping companies that says that they have fraudulently marketed their products to children and in turn has resulted in damages to schools, and so the litigation tries to obtain money for schools in terms of cost they have incurred related to vaping as well as costs for dealing with vaping issues in the future,” said Matusiak. Not only is this problem systemic, but the CDC also refers to it as an “epidemic.” According to the FDA’s 2021 data survey, 11.3% of high school students in the United States use e-cigarettes equating to 2 million youth across the country who are using these highly addictive products. That same survey found that many teenagers who use them have a strong dependence on nicotine.In Michigan, 20.8% of high school students use vaping products. It is even estimated that 213,000 kids who are currently 18 and younger in Michigan will die prematurely from smoking.