After producing sweet – and sweetly packaged – drinks with alcohol to entice “entry level drinkers” (read: young girls) into the world of alcohol consumption, the alcohol industry has also discovered what appeals to boys: the popular energy drinks plus alcohol.
Adding alcohol to energy drinks really isn’t anything new, I learned yesterday from talking to a younger cousin. She described “plasters,” which were shots of Jagrmeister chased with Red Bull. Though from Sonoma and pretty savvy about alcohol products, she was surprised to learn that the alcohol industry is marketing energy drinks with alcohol because she recalled that even back when she was in college, bars and party hosts discontinued serving “plasters” because of the dangers of combining the two drinks.
But, for the consumer, being cool and, for the manufacturer, making scads of money trump common sense and consideration for public health and safety, so the alcohol industry is making the drinks so young drinkers don’t have to. At least, until the public raises its ire and tells them it’s unacceptable.
Because teens can go back to simply adding their own alcohol to energy drinks as they did before, and do now (as we saw in Morgan Hill, with the alleged date rapists who added alcohol to Gatorade, it’s still a current practice), it’s important that adults in the community become aware of the dangers to the consumer and to the community of combining these drinks.
Packaging: The drinks are mostly in cans. The most popular energy drinks are RockStar, Monster, Full Throttle, Amp, and Nos, sometimes sold in sizes that have as much as three servings. The ones with alcohol added to them look very much the same, but are named Tilt, Sparks, Charge and RockStar 21 and Bud Extra. A demonstration of these drinks side by side that the local prevention partnerships have put together has revealed that adults and even teens, who have better brand recognition, often do not distinguish them from their non-alcoholic cousins.
Price: The drinks with alcohol in them cost as much as a dollar LESS than the drinks without alcohol. Price conscious teens, who mistakenly think that because the drink contains the energy ingredients that they won’t become as drunk, choose the drink with alcohol.
We adults assume they’re carded at the places of purchases. However, a sting operation in San Diego last week revealed that some of the employees who sold the drinks to underage buyers didn’t realize the drinks contain alcohol (the rest couldn’t subtract from the dates presented on the students’ real ID’s).
Problems: The combination of alcohol with energy drink ingredients provides a quick buzz. The misunderstanding of the effects of the drink leads drinkers to drink more and longer. The drinks are loaded with caffeine, which, as a stimulant, helps mask – not eliminate or alleviate – the intoxicating effects of the alcohol. Drinkers can’t tell if they’re drunk and can’t tell if others are drunk. Other symptoms from imbibing the mixture include dizziness, impaired judgment, shortness of breath, disorientation and a rapid heart beat. The rapid heart beat is a common side effect and for someone with a not so healthy heart, can be life threatening.
The common ingredients of taurine, which is rumored to increase exercise capacity, and ginseng, which is reputed to increase libido, contribute the impact of these drinks on others.
A study from Wake Forest University scientists released two weeks ago confirmed students who consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks are:
- Twice as likely to take advantage of someone else sexually, and almost twice as likely to be taken advantage of sexually;
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Twice as likely to be hurt or injured;
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Twice as likely to require medical attention;
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Had twice has many episodes of weekly drunkenness;
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Had 36 percent greater number of drinks during a typical drinking session;
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Twice as likely to ride with another intoxicated driver than students who consumed alcohol, but not with the energy drink additives.
The surveys of the study showed that these drinks were particularly popular with males who were athletes.
The alcohol industry is insidious to continue making these male equivalents of “girlie drinks” I’ve fussed about before. But even if they stop, parents must still educate their children on the dangers of adding the two together. As a parent, I see our teens under siege by a well-funded marketing campaign that is targeting them for one reason only: to spend their money on their products. But spending their lives is our communities’ concern.
