�Թϲ�����

North Carolina's attorney general is suing a popular e-cigarette maker, asking a court to limit what flavors it can sell and ensure underage teens can't buy its vaping products. Josh Stein, the top law enforcement official in the traditionally tobacco-friendly state, said Wednesday he's the first state attorney general to take the maker of Juul to court. The Massachusetts attorney general last year announced an investigation into Juul's sales and marketing. (5/15)

The suit, filed in state court, alleges that Juul caused addiction in consumers by “deceptively downplaying the potency and danger of the nicotine” and employed advertising campaigns that targeted people under the legal smoking age. Several of the state’s requests overlap with existing Food and Drug Administration policies, including prohibiting the sale of Juul and other e-cigarette products to minors. But the state’s complaint goes further: FDA guidelines restrict the sale of fruit or candy flavors in stores, allowing menthol, tobacco and mint to be sold. North Carolina’s request would bring mint off the market in that state, in addition to the popular flavors like mango and cucumber. (Paul, 5/15)

“Juul’s business practices are not only reckless, they’re illegal,” Mr. Stein said Wednesday in a statement. “And I intend to put a stop to them. We cannot allow another generation of young people to become addicted to nicotine. ”Juul said in a statement that the company shares the concerns about youth vaping and noted it had been working with Mr. Stein’s office and taken aggressive actions to combat underage use. (Armental, 5/15)

A federal judge is siding with public health groups suing the Food and Drug Administration to begin reviewing thousands of e-cigarettes on the U.S. market. The ruling handed down Wednesday in district court states that the agency shirked its legal duty when it postponed reviewing all U.S. vaping products by several years. (5/15)

The decision amounted to "an abdication of its statutory responsibilities," Judge Paul Grimm ruled. While it tried to figure out how to implement the law, FDA, he said, essentially afforded "the manufacturers responsible for the public harm a holiday from meeting the obligations of the law." Grimm ruled that FDA has two weeks to submit a specific plan of action on moving forward with the reviews. Grimm noted that the agency will still have to go through the standard rulemaking procedures, but added that "manufacturers long have been on notice" that they will have to submit their products for FDA reviews. (Weixel, 5/15)

One of the biggest U.S. tobacco companies has started marketing its e-cigarettes on Twitter and Instagram, seeking to regain market share lost to upstart Juul Labs Inc. The ads and social-media accounts for Vuse e-cigarettes, from Camel and Newport maker Reynolds American, launched Wednesday. They come less than a year after Juul pulled back its U.S. social-media marketing amid concerns that it had targeted teenagers. (Maloney, 5/15)