Former Mass. AG Coakley joins e-cigarette maker Juul

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) is joining the government affairs team at e-cigarette maker Juul, the company said Tuesday.

Coakley, who previously lost races for Senate and governor in Massachusetts, will be working primarily with state officials, regulators and organizations to educate them on ways Juul is fighting underage use.

She had been advising Juul for several months as a partner at the law firm Foley Hoag.

{mosads}“JUUL has an incredible opportunity to switch adult smokers and I look forward to working with stakeholders from the private and public sectors as we fulfill that mission and prevent youth from ever using vapor products like JUUL,” Coakley said in a statement.

Juul is the country’s most dominant vaping manufacturer. Late last year, the country’s largest cigarette company, Altria, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, spent more than $12 billion to buy a 35 percent stake in Juul.

As attorney general, Coakley tried to crack down on e-cigarette use by minors. In 2013, Coakley and other state attorneys general called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban fruit and candy flavored e-cigarettes and ban manufacturers from using advertisements to target young people.

Coakley’s successor, Maura Healey, last summer launched an investigation into Juul and other online e-cigarette retailers over concerns about the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

The federal government has been grappling with a massive spike in teen vaping. The surgeon general issued a rare public health advisory about teen vaping late last year and called for more restrictions, like increased taxes and indoor e-cigarette bans, to combat teen vaping.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has also launched a major push to stop e-cigarette sales to minors, accusing manufacturers and retailers of contributing to an “epidemic” of use among kids and teenagers.

There was a 78 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students from 2017 to 2018, and a 48 percent increase among middle school students, according to FDA data.

The agency has proposed limiting the sales of most flavored e-cigarettes to age-restricted, in-person locations, effectively ending sales at gas stations and convenience stores.

Amid the regulatory crackdown, Juul has significantly increased its lobbying spending. The company reported spending $750,000 in the final quarter of the year, up from $210,000 in the second quarter of 2018.

But Gottlieb is stepping down at the end of this week, leading to concerns that his ambitious agenda on tobacco and e-cigarettes will be foiled by powerful lobbying forces.