From my cover story this week in the Ventura County Reporter:
In his presentations on the hazards of alcoholic energy drinks
around Ventura County, administrator of the Behavioral Health
Department Dan Hicks likes to show a photograph of the aftermath of a
horrific accident in 2007.A car driven by a young man hit a tree so hard it nearly came apart.
“This
accident happened at the intersection of Williams and Gonzales, which
is right outside my office,” he said. “The Oxnard police responded, and
they interviewed the passenger and asked him if he had been drinking.
‘Well, we had some energy drinks,’ ” he said.In the car, the
police found a can of Joose Blue, which is nearly 9 percent alcohol by
volume, in a can about twice the size of a beer can, which makes it
equivalent to close to four beers, though it costs about $2.50.“That
was a real eye-opener,” Hicks said. “The fact that they survived says a
lot more about the side impact bags on a Nissan than it does for the
skills of a driver on ‘Joose.’ ”Even Hicks, who has been
working to reduce underage drinking in the county for nearly five
years, hadn’t fully realized how popular alcoholic energy drinks were
among young people — and how little adults knew about the risks.“It’s sort of like a generation gap in awareness,” he said. “When I was
a kid in high school, we used to hide our beers in plastic wraps.
Today, the beverage companies take care of that for you. A lot of
adults don’t even know that energy drinks can contain alcohol. A
counselor in San Diego gave a presentation to some teachers at a middle
school, and went out at lunchtime and counted 12 students with
alcoholic energy drinks. They didn’t need to conceal it because the
adults didn’t even know these drinks existed.”
For the rest of the story — which really was eye-opening to yours truly — please click here.
And here's a picture of one such energy drink.
"Joose." "Nitrous." "Cocaine."
These are all names for such
alcoholic energy drinks, or names of energy drinks which are designed to be
consumed with alcohol, and marketed with alcohol.
Can you spot the trend?
Kit Stolz 
total BS my friend Cocaine and Nitrous do not contain any alcohol. Either you are a liar a Moron or at the very least very misleading. For god sake do a little research. Nitrous is made by Monster and is not marketed to be mixed. Cocaine might have recipes to be mixed with alcohol but it is not marketed that way really. Joose has plenty of alcohol but the amount of caffeine is unknown.
LikeLike
Bob is corrected in saying that most energy drinks do not contain alcohol. In the near future the FDA looks likely to ban alcohol from energy drinks, so maybe that will become all energy drinks.
But as Dan Hicks of VC Behaviorial Health said in the story:
“I don’t think it’s a mistake by the stock boy at your local convenience store that the Monster Nitrous happens to be placed right next to the Jaegermeister,” Hicks said. “That’s 2,000 milligrams of caffeine and other stimulants, equivalent to nearly seven cups of coffee, and they’re encouraging people to mix this with distilled spirits. Do that and you’re guaranteed to have trouble.”
LikeLike
bob bob bob bob bob trololololololol
LikeLike