Juul grant criticized

African-American health experts and activists are denouncing Juul’s $7.5 million grant to Meharry Medical College because they don’t want black youths becoming addicted to nicotine through vaping, reports The New York Times.

Research into the health effects of tobacco products, including newer nicotine delivery systems such as Juul’s popular vaping devices, was to be the first order of study for the new center at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

“Juul doesn’t have African-Americans’ best interests in mind,” said LaTroya Hester, a spokeswoman for the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network. “The truth is that Juul is a tobacco product, not much unlike its demon predecessors.”

Meharry officials stressed that the college approached Juul, not the other way around. The college’s president, James E.K. Hildreth Sr., has said he was confident that the new center’s work would be free of Juul’s influence.