A Charlotte County teen is encouraging others to quit "juuling" by posting videos destroying his friends juul devices.
Juuls are vaporizers that look like flash drives, which makes it easy for kids to hide them from their parents and teachers.
Wills McKenzie graduated from Charlotte High School last year, but said he's tired of seeing his younger friends, who are minors, juuling -- sometimes even in school.
He started a group on SnapChat to try to encourage his friends to put an end to what he calls a pointless habit.
He and his friends are crushing the juuls with hammers or golf clubs, cutting them with clippers, and throwing them into ponds or off tall buildings.
McKenzie is trying to send a very clear message:
"Juuls are for fools," he said.
He said he's sick of seeing underage kids "hitting the juul."
"It's just gotten way out of hand," he said. "I had a 15-year-old student come up to me at a gas station last week and ask me to buy him pods {for his juul}."
First, McKenzie destroyed his own vaporizer.
"I'd be a hypocrite to say I've never used a juul or owned a vape," he said.
When Four in Your Corner stopped by his home, there was a graveyard of juuls and other devices -- what was left of what he and other teens destroyed.
"Remains of what used to be many juuls, vapes, all sorts of liquids owned by minors, high school students," he said.
He said his grandpa died from smoking cigarettes and the nicotine from the juul pods makes them addicting and harmful.
"One pod is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes. Students will run through 4 of these, which is what comes in a pack, weekly," McKenzie said.
He's now encouraging all teens to stop the habit.
"I challenge you to quit," he said.
The FDA says the nicotine in products like juuls can lead to years of addiction, and e-cigarettes do offer a lower risk alternative for adults, but "the viability of these products is severely undermined if those products entice youth to start using tobacco and nicotine."
