Campus Buzz Students continue to use Juuls despite campus and community regulations WORDS BY
Lindsey Sellman
PHOTOS BY
Tessa Poulain
J
uuls — you may have seen the strange devices in the hands of friends and peers and the white clouds billowing from the mouths of fellow students. Juuls are a small vapor devices that look suspiciously like a flash drive. The device even charges when plugged into a computer. Because of this, Juuls are easily concealed — even in a classroom or other smoke-free place, such as the Kent State campus. Karlyn Kanuckel, a freshman majoring in nursing, first tried Juuling in May. She says a lot of people at school have Juuls and, at first, she thought they were stupid. Kanuckel’s best friend is the person who eventually coaxed her into trying the e-cigarette. Now, Kanuckel says she is addicted. Kent State has been a smoke-free campus since July 1, 2017. The city of Kent passed an ordinance, Tobacco 21, on July 18 preventing the sale of tobacco or tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21. The Juul is included in both bans. For these reasons, Kent State offers a free smoking cessation program to its students and staff to aid in quitting smoking. The DeWeese Health Center offers various forms of support for students interested in quitting, including the KSU Freedom from Smoking program, ways to get involved with nicotine replacement therapy and suggestions for apps that help with the quitting process. Coordinator of the Office of Health Promotion, Scott Dotterer, also suggests that students looking to stop smoking have “multiple layers of support.” He says the Ohio Intergroup of Nicotine Anonymous is another place to find the tools one needs to quit. Kanuckel says she is not affected by these bans because she purchases her JUULpods outside city limits, often in her hometown,
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