Lines need to be drawn for the stupid people. I’m one of those stupid people and so are my friends. They sure are damn tasty, kinda makes me want to get one right now.

Try drinking 15 coffees and 3 beers in one sitting; it’s a LOT harder to do than just knocking back 3 cans of “energy drink”. It doesn’t need to be regulated because it regulates itself. And if you drank the equivalent in Rum & Cokes… you’d be drinking something like 75 cans of coke and 15 shots of rum, which again is kind of difficult to pull off in a short period of time. Turning this into a question of “if they take this, what will they take next?” is disingenuous.

No, Oxycodone isn’t being marketed at kids for recreational use. These drinks are. Go down to any skateboard park, go to the XTreme games, go to the Red Bull air races. You’re going to see scads of kids and energy drinks everywhere. Open your eyes.

I just finished watching a show about how some teens are vulnerable to heart failure due to energy drinks with no alcohol at all. You tell a grieving mom how her son died due to ‘lack of responsibility’. Targeting marketing of alcoholic energy drinks to teenagers is like lighting a match next to explosives.

Are you the vanguard for freedom? Really?

By banning the product the FDA is restricting the right to consume legal food related items and is another measure of government control. A popular product which is not abused by the majority of its consumers is being banned which causes the loss of revenue and jobs.

On the other hand the product is not all that different from the many drinks made by combining energy beverages like red bull with alcohol so nothing really unique is being lost. These products haven’t even been out that long and already there has been a disproportionate number of deaths and hospitalizations compared with other drinks commonly available at parties.

Ideally, people should take responsibility for their own health and safety without government restrictions. Unfortunately, the demographic most at risk is also typically in the least responsible period of their lives. There is no doubt that additional lives will be saved from this ban. Is what we are losing more valuable compared to that?

What a country we’ve become. We don’t even need to Congress to act anymore. We just accept the FDA coming in and ending companies and jobs because said company married legal ingredients and distribute them to companies who are required, by law, to sell to adults only. Yeah, a few dumb kids got sick and there’s the nanny to step in and protect us all. I’m seriously waiting for FDA thugs to show up at county fairs across America, protecting the sheep from things like fried Oreos ands and super-hot hot sauces.

9.9% of 24 oz = 2.376oz, the amount of alcohol in the can here. 2 oz of Jaeger at 35% = .7, so just over 3 Jaegerbombs. Which include a can of Redbull, at 80mg caffeine. Approximately 2/3rds a average cup of coffee’s worth (unless your bar skimps. tip more next time). Assuming these drinks really have 5 cups of coffee worth as claimed by the article, that’s about 600 mg (5x120mg per coffee. The LD50 of caffeine is 192mg/kg, or say 12.218 grams for a 140 lb person, for the curious.) So you’d have to do 3 or 4 jaeger shots and drink another energy drink.. Though I personally think 600 mg may be the extreme end of the scale and the drinks likely follow a gaussian distribution, however I don’t care enough to do the actual research.

“The FDA began its review in November 2009, after complaints from officials in several states. The controversy exploded in October, when nine underage students at Central Washington University were hospitalized after drinking Four Loko, both on its own and mixed with other drinks, police reported.”

The kind of statistics are inherently biased without a comparison. How many underage students get hospitalized from drinking non-energy alcoholic drinks each year? We’re meant to assume this is aberrant behavior, but in years past there have been media scares about frat pledges doing the same thing at the behest of their possible future brothers, until the peer pressure environment that incubated such processes was cracked down on.

People rarely get taught how to drink booze and learn their limits responsibly. We’re expected to learn it on our own, while intoxicated. The younger your brain is, the less higher reasoning grey matter you own. The frontal lobe doesn’t finish up until about 24. This does not seem like a great recipe.

This is a freedom issue, not a health issue. Alcohol does terrible things to your body, with or without caffeine. Do you suggest we ban it as well? Why not ban happy meal toys? Oh wait, that’s already happened.

I never plan on drinking one of these products, but that’s my choice. Stop acting like we can’t take care of ourselves. Obama talked about hope in the American people, but this is the exact opposite. If you don’t believe people can take care of themselves, then you’re anything but hopeful.

That’s why I don’t entirely buy the idea that the makers don’t care for the reputation of “blackout in a can”. They like that association just fine, so long as the regulators don’t notice.

And plus, they don’t advertise Irish Coffees or Vodka Red Bulls in convienience stores… the FDA can’t put a limit on what you mix together while at home or in some other environment.. so as for scaremongering, I’m not buying that. It’s a legitimate concern.