INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Hundreds of schools across the country have joined a lawsuit against the makers of JUUL vape products. The nationwide effort is aimed at reducing e-cigarette use among teenagers. While it's been an ongoing suit over the last few years, the latest to join is Indianapolis Public Schools.

Amy Peak is the director of Undergraduate Health Science Programs at Butler University. She points out the prominence of underage e-cigarette use is still a major health issue they are working to combat.

“From a health professional standpoint, the challenge is we haven’t done anything to decrease nicotine addiction. While we have absolutely decreased combustible cigarette smoking, we’ve just replaced those risks with different types of risks," Peak said.

School districts from California to New York have signed onto a lawsuit that could shape the future of e-cigarettes. The districts claim that JUUL Labs. Inc. targeted teens in the marketing of their products, harming the schools that educate those kids in the process.

“We are shifting the risk so maybe the risk isn’t as much lung cancer as it was previously, but we see completely different types of lung disease. We see higher addiction rates and then we see more gateways into other things," Peak said.

Peak says the problem, at this point, reaches far beyond JUUL.

“I think that JUUL was the leader of the pack. It became a verb not a noun. People juuled, they were juuling," Peak said.

The company stopped selling flavored products in 2019. They also pulled all U.S. advertising.

“They have taken some very responsible steps and likely ahead of some legislation that was inevitable," Peak said.

Windi Hornsby is the parent of two students within Indianapolis public schools.

“I think about how easy it was for me to start smoking, I can’t imagine how much easier it is for a kid to, if they can get their hands on it, to become addicted to some fruit-flavored to candy flavor e-cigarette," Hornsby said. “I think that’s just another facet for our school district caring about our children’s safety.”

She worries this lawsuit won’t go far enough to fight teenage e-cigarette use.

"It needs to be targeted as an industry-wide thing which would probably come with legislation and our law makers doing something on that end," Hornsby said.

More than 2 million U.S. youth currently use e-cigarettes, according to the 2021 Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey. Of that group, most teenagers are using flavored e-cigs. About 1 in 4 use them daily.

“So, what you see now are things like puff bars that are all of those really enticing flavors. There is no difference between a puff bar and a JUUL, other than one is not a reusable device," Peak said.

JUUL says it is trying to be responsible. In response to the survey the company acknowledged, “We will only be trusted to provide alternatives to adult smokers if we continue to combat underage use, respect the central role of our regulator and build on our shared commitment to science and evidence.”

“I think there is a misperception that e-cigarettes aren’t as dangerous. You can’t see the tobacco-like you can see it in a cigarette. So, I do wonder if people just think oh this is safer and you do hear about people going to e-cigarettes as a ween to go off of smoking,"Hornsby said.

“Very often, it’s to self medicate for anxiety that’s uncontrolled, sometimes it’s from a depression standpoint. The use of nicotine and other addictive substances and mental health disorders go hand in hand," Peak said.

Peak says we can’t combat this issue, without working on a larger issue: adolescent mental health.

“I’m very concerned that we have a larger number of youth addicted to nicotine than we had previously, we were making good progress and all of that progress is going away," Peak said.

CINCINNATI —

The global supply chain crisis is hitting home in many ways.

There is a number of avenues to explore when it comes to items that are now in short supply. But you know it starts getting serious when you mess with Cincinnati favorites like Graeter's Ice Cream.

"A lot of things we're getting about half of what we should be getting," Chip Graeter said Friday while surveying inventory at the company's Reading Road location.

Richard Graeter recounted how the lid adhesive that attaches to the rim of his ice cream pints was about to appear on the endangered list.

"That would have been a catastrophe," he told us.

Longtime pizza parlors like LaRosa's are feeling the pinch, too.

"Packaging's been really bad," lamented Mike LaRosa at his restaurant on Boudinot. "Paper products and cups. Things like that."

If you're thinking Skyline time sometime soon, don't count on chili ranch dressing. They're also experiencing a cup shortage, though they described both as "mild" situations.

"Like many others in our industry, supply chain issues have mildly disrupted our inventory," said Sarah Sicking, Skyline's vice president of marketing. "Thankfully, it has only affected a few items, including one of our sauces and our supply of cups."

Izzy's, another iconic institution in this city, found out this morning some of the rolls it uses won't be available for another two weeks.

A pack of Gulden's Mustard is another spicy sore point.

"They weren't making packets," said John Geisen at the restaurant on Red Bank Road. "We couldn't get packets for three months. So, I bought 150 cases. We went through that."

Izzy's is famous for its corned beef and its pastrami. It comes out of Detroit. But with a shortage of truck drivers, Geisen had to hit the road. He went up there himself and got it.

Improvise or perish.

That could be the working motto at local staples like Izzy's and Graeter's nowadays. You can still get double-buttered coffee cake there. It usually sits on a square piece of cardboard.

"Those are in short supply," Chip Graeter told us. "We can't get 'em at all."

So, he's using round plastic foam containers until that runs out.

Graeter's does a ton of shipping which takes a lot of dry ice. They are getting about half of what they would normally get.

"We get dry ice twice a week and they've had real big production problems where they make the dry ice," he said.

LaRosa went so far as to post a public apology about shortages. He explained why.

"With social media, we were beginning to see posts from people that you guys are not runnin' the business well, you're out of everything, what's wrong with you guys? So, people were kind of making things up," he said.

He asked for patience.

The businesses are planning ahead for the holidays with no shortage of determination.

"Come hell or high water, we're going to make it happen," Geisen said.