Attorneys General Urge Regulation of "Alcoholic Energy Drinks"

Years ago, when I worked in the restaurant industry as a manager, I remember a somewhat dangerous practice that was going around the chain that I worked for. It was customary for managers to sometimes work 60-80 hours a week. Needless to say a lot of coffee was consumed. For some, coffee wasn't the answer and when coffee alone wasn't enough, it was used to wash down a couple of NoDoz. NoDoz was pure caffeine in tablet form. Each tablet was the equivalent of a cup of strong coffee. One of the mangers, who was also a smoker, got the brilliant idea of mixing some of the powdered NoDoz tablets with some snuff and then snorting it. For those of you unfamiliar with the stuff, snuff was a form of powdered tobacco that was popular in the eighteenth century. You carried it around in a wooden box and just a pinch in each nostril was all that you needed. Well, this manager said that he had used the combination of caffeine and tobacco in college when he was cramming for exams and sometimes when he had a party to go to. It seemed to nullify the effects of the alcohol. Several of the managers decided to give it a try, and sure enough, the stuff had an effect like a mule kick to the forehead. Most of them stopped however, when a few days later, they started noticing large clots of blood coming out into their handkerchief when they blew their noses.

Now the newest rage among college students and teens is to mix energy drinks like Red Bull with alcohol.

According to a recent press release by Ball State University, this can be a dangerous combination. According to the study, mixing the powerful stimulants found in some of the energy drinks with the depressants in alcohol can cause cardiopulmonary or cardiovascular failure. Some individuals are more susceptible to the negative effects of these combinations than others.

Energy drinks usually contain large amounts of caffeine and other legal stimulants like ephedrine, guarana, taurine, and ginseng. These drinks are being marketed to the under thirty crowd, who were raised on caffeine drinks and think that they are perfectly harmless.