Public health advocates are also skeptical of Juul’s position on younger users. In January, Kimberlee Homer Vagadori, project director of California Youth Advocacy Network, was alarmed to learn that Juul had offered to partner with K-12 schools for a youth smoking prevention program that included focus groups with younger users. The tobacco industry began sponsoring youth prevention efforts in the 1980s as a way to forestall legislation, but studies found that they did more harm than good. “It’s just a marketing ploy,” Vagadori says.

Juul says it no longer reaches out to schools. “We are aware of the criticism and scrutiny from some regarding our efforts,” says spokesperson Victoria Davis. “But we cannot be more clear---we want to work with policymakers, lawmakers, FDA regulators, educators, and parents on youth education and prevention. We want to be part of the solution in keeping minors away from Juul."

Juul’s moves come at crucial time for the company, founded by two Stanford alums who set out to apply their product design skills to build a cleaner, cooler vaporizer that would fit in your pocket. Last year, Juul separated from Pax Labs, and is in the process of raising more than $1.2 billion at a $15 billion valuation, up from an estimated $350 million in 2015. 1

The vaping industry itself is at an inflection point. After years with no federal oversight, companies now have until 2022 to submit a costly, complicated review process with the FDA. In the meantime, states are playing catch-up with Juul’s sudden ubiquity in high school bathrooms, cracking down on e-cigarettes with taxes, indoor bans, flavor bans, and more.

'It’s more indication that Juul is behaving like tobacco companies always have.' Vince Willmore, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

As Juul’s financial ambitions inflate, the company finds itself on the same side of regulatory battles as the tobacco industry it once hoped to disrupt. This leaves Juul shuffling, awkwardly, between its public image and private sales pitch. Now the company has to convince regulators that it wants to push away the teens that made it famous, just as it’s trying to convince investors that a highly regulated piece of hardware can scale as quickly as lines of code.

Juul declined to make executives available, but Davis, the spokesperson, says, “We are investing in our Washington, DC office because we want to support bipartisan policies to help adult smokers in their switching journey.”

For now, e-cigarettes and the vaping industry are puffing away in regulatory limbo. The FDA did not start regulating tobacco products until 2009, after Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. But it wasn’t until 2016 that the FDA officially extended its authority over newer products, like e-cigarettes. A morass of exceptions, extensions, and lawsuits followed. For now, newly regulated products like e-cigarettes are supposed to retroactively go through a complicated review process with the FDA before 2022 without knowing exactly what the standards around vaping will be.

That’s why the controversial bill on which Juul declined to take a position is key. The measure, known as the Cole-Bishop amendment, would exempt e-cigarette companies like Juul from the FDA review if they can show that a new product is “substantially equivalent” to an existing product that was approved after FDA review. It was included in a House agricultural appropriations bill in May, and awaits consideration by the Senate.

Records show that Juul has spent $240,000 to lobby Congress on vaping and e-cigarette regulation since last year, including FDA rules and the appropriations bills. But when WIRED asked Juul about its position on the Cole-Bishop amendment, the company did not give a straight answer. “Juul Labs is looking to work with the FDA and Congress on establishing scientifically-valid and appropriate regulations of [electronic nicotine delivery systems or ENDS] products,” the company said in a statement.

That worries some anti-smoking advocates. “Juul’s comments are troubling. If they are serious about being part of the solution, they would support effective FDA regulation and they would be opposing efforts to weaken FDA authority and it’s troubling that they’re not opposing it,” says Vince Willmore, vice president of communications with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “It’s more indication that Juul is behaving like tobacco companies always have.”