Small but potent 'vaping' devices that look like USB drives become highly popular with young smokers and 'vapers'

Smoke-shop manager Cathleen McCarthy demonstrates
the device. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter, The Boston Globe)

The latest trend in "vaping," inhaling vapor with nicotine, flavoring and who knows what else, is a small, rectangular device that looks enough like a USB drive or another electronic device that students can bring it to school and circumvent bans on smoking and vaping materials.

The device is branded JUUL, but the basis of the acronym (if it is one) is unknown. The Boston Globe called it "Juul" in a November story that called it "the most widespread phenomenon you've likely never heard of."

Though the device is small, its nicotine is much more concentrated than in typical vaping device, so "One puff is powerful," Carly Jensen of KOLN/KGIN-TV in Lincoln, Neb., reported this week. "Teachers are being warned to watch out for the dangers of the new device."

The devices have quickly become highly popular. A smoke-shop operator told Jensen, "In the past six months this thing has just been flying off the shelves." Beth Teitell of the Globe reported, "A psychologist who sees patients in Boston’s upscale western suburbs told the Globe that every teen he treats now uses a Juul. . . . Every student approached by a Globe reporter in multiple suburbs not only was familiar with the product, but had a story."