News: Energy Drinks May Be Banned On Long Island
(Long Island, N.Y.)It wasn’t long ago when the New York City Council had many New Yorkers in outrage over the ban of cigarette smoking in certain public settings. That legislative move came after the New York City Mayor’s ban of smoking in restaurants and bars. Last November, New York State legislators helped get the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko off shelves, and their next target seems to be other popular (non-alcoholic) energy drinks.
Last December Lynne Nowick, a Republican legislator from Suffolk County, proposed banning the selling of energy drinks with more than 80mg of caffeine to minors less than nineteen years of age. This means that minors will have a better chance of being sold cigarettes than these popular beverages. The reasons for the ban seem to be similar to those against the distribution of tobacco; these drinks are considered addictive and unsafe.
There are a number of reasons why energy drinks can be dangerous. For one thing, manufacturers aren’t required to list and label the amounts of their contents or include a warning. However, the popular drink Red Bull, which contains 80mg of caffeine in a can, warns on its label that it is not for children and pregnant women and should not be consumed more than twice a day. The amount of caffeine in Red Bull is considered the equivalent to a strong cup of coffee.
Other states that have banned the distribution of Four Loko are Washington, Michigan, Utah, and Oklahoma. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer helped push for the ban in New York. Part of what makes drinks like Four Loko so toxic is that they make drinkers feel awake while intoxicated, allowing them to feel alert enough to drive.
It’s also believed that there are negative effects of combining alcohol (a depressant that slows down the body) and caffeine (a stimulant that speeds up the body). Research has shown that in the last month 78% of drinkers under the age of twenty-five have combined alcohol with a caffeinated energy drink. This includes the popular drink of Red Bull and Vodka as well as Jaeger Bombs, which are a Long Island staple.
Similar to what prompted increased legislation against the selling of cigarettes, the Four Loko ban was due to its accessibility to minors. It was first banned on a New Jersey college campus. New York detectives had a minor go undercover and attempt to purchase the beverage from twenty-eight stores; he successfully bought the drink from eleven different vendors. Four Loko is set apart from the rest of its kind because it gives many users the feeling of being high, making many compare the drink to “liquid ecstasy” and “liquid cocaine.”
Four Loko costs between two or three dollars apiece and comes in a 23.5 ounce can. It contains the alcohol equivalent of four beers and an undisclosed amount of caffeine. The drink Relentless, marketed by Coca Cola, contains 160mg of caffeine. The drinks Spike Shooter and Cocaine are sold in a container half the size of Relentless and contain 300mg and 280mg of caffeine respectively. Tilt, another label, has 100mg of caffeine and 6.6% alcohol by volume. Similarly, the drink Sparks contains 120mg of caffeine and 6% alcohol.
A lot of these labels have had issues with marketing and have been forced to come off the shelves. Such issues have encouraged some companies to remove the caffeine contents from their alcoholic beverages. Red Bull has been banned in Norway, Uruguay, and Denmark.
If the current attempt to ban non-alcoholic energy drinks takes place in New York it will be the first in the country. Many see the proposal as yet another infringement of rights. They argue that the soda and coffee companies should be held just as accountable, or, that they’ll soon become the next target of proposed bans.
