Senator says colorful cans of Joose, Four Loko, aim at underage market
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comProbe sought into alcohol-energy drinks promotion
Seeded on Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:25 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
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Okay, its bad to sell these beverages because teens get them but its okay for the Drug Corporations to pump out millions of prescriptions to pre-teens and teens for ritalin, which is a stimulant.
Agreed Jim, a potential drug addict is made with every perscription written for Ritalin and other similar medications in the so called treatment for ADHD and ADD. The children then become amphetamine dependent and require "real chemical dependency treatment" in their early adulthoods.
I happen to have ADD and need adderall to help me concentrate, and I do NOT need "real chemical dependency treatment". I am also not a drug addict. You have no idea what you are talking about. ADD and ADHD is REAL! Are there millions of kids diganosed as AD(H)D who are really not? Yes. But there are kids who really have it and are treated.
It's not the people who are perscribed these meds that you need to worry about. It's the people who are not perscribed these types of meds but take them so they can pull all nighters. These types of people who are not perscribed these meds would be more likely to need the "real chemical dependency treatment".
Ok, try to stop taking the Adderall cold turkey and see what happens, but do so under medical supervision only please. Not everyone is a potential drug addict, roughly 10% of the population, but the kids who fall into that 10% who are perscribed an amphetamine are doomed to problems that can be fatal. Doctors rarely ask about genetic predisposition when they perscribe this poison.
I am 16 years old and was diganosed with ADHD when i was about 5 i was give ritalin for 7 years before I got a new doctor who said i was not ADHD but was in fact dislexic, meaning I was given a drug I didn't need for 7 years just because my doctor messed up
I can tell you exactly what hapens when I stop taking adderall. I can't concentrate and get destracted VERY easily. It takes double my concentation to follow what the teacher is teaching (I am in collage)and I easily will stare off in space. I was diagnosed as a child, not by some family physitain, but by psychologist. I also have a reading disability, in fifth grade I was still at a first grade reading level. I also have OCD (obessive compulsive disorder, NOT caused by medication like adderall). Before I was put on medician (which GREATLY) helped I would wash my hands 100 times a day (literally, be for I eat, after playing on the play ground, etc.). Now because of medication I wash my hands less frequently, before I eat and after going to the bath room. Side effects? Yes, if I forget to take my OCD med's for a day I experience withdraw. If I was off of it, I would be washing my hands 10 times more frequently than I do now.
Summers, if I am not in school, I don't take my adderall because there is real no reason why I need to concentrate. If I do take my adderall then I feel like I need to be doing something ALL day. I can't just sit back and relax my mind (and hands) would need to be doing something like math (no not kidding during and after collage algebra if I took adderall and wasn't doing something then I would want to be doing some kind of math). Working at my dad's office fileing can be difficult off adderall. Sometimes I will barely work, I'll have a file sitting in front of me then just want to sit and stare at the wall. There are times that all I want to do is stare and then it becomes nearly impossible to quit staring and get something done.
Genetic predispostion I have no idea. I was adopted the day I was born. We think my biological father had ADD and that I got it from him. I do not know anything about my genetics, what I might be predisposed to, etc.
I hope this answers you questions. Have any more, ask.
I agree, some people benefit from Ritalin but the drug is also abused, "cheeked" and sold. I don't think the millions of prescriptions are justified. They didn't prescribe them nearly as often a decade ago. As for Adderal, it can lead to suicidal depression and suicide and is a treatment of last resort. I worked with youth for 2 decades, with mental health issues, consulting with our Psychiatric team, to review, and prescribe all medications.
I was on Ritalin during the school year when I was a kid, I didn't take it in the summer. It really helped me concentrate and stay focused on school work and pay attention to the teacher.
I went from D's and F's to A's and B's.
Unfortunately, any drugs can be abused. Ritalin and Adderol are no exception.
I don't have ADHD or ADD, and I'm certainly not saying that many people need them, it's just that IMHO too many times the drugs are prescribed as a "quick fix" instead of trying to see what else can be done. I knew some pretty "hyperactive" kids growing up who some would say needed medication by today's standards; I also baby-sat (in high school in the 70's) a boy who was ADD and off his medication for the summer and there's a real difference. I think too many times it's easier for the parents (and teachers and doctors) to go for the easy way out instead of seeing if it's "true ADD" or just an energetic kid that needs a chance to burn off some energy.
you are right life
You do know that there's a huge difference between medicinal use and recreational use, right? Ritalin and other stimulants are prescribed to regulate neurochemical function in a controlled and monitored manner, amp drinks are abused by teens everywhere. In the high school I work in, it's such a challenge to keep kids that would normally be well-behaved focused and on task because they've made the choice to amp themselves up. Even though drinks with caffeine have been banned for sale on campus, it doesn't help that they can go right around the corner and buy any of the multitude of products specifically marketed to that demographic. First it was Mountain Dew, now several others have "upped the game" with even more stimulating drinks, making them more and more potent. One can only imagine the future of a generation of kids addicted to caffiene from an early age.
Like all us adults who aren't worth a @!$%# without a cup of coffe in the morning? Obviously hysteria not caffiene is your addiction.
bravo, bravo
i'd start by not treating them like robots
I am 28 years old and I happen to like these drinks. The fact that the senator says these drinks are hip and cool and therefore are marketed towards underage drinkers is insulting. Is he saying that since I am 28 I can no longer be hip? Maybe I like flashy colors and grape and orange flavors!
On another note, the sale to and consumption of non-alcoholic energy drinks by students is a completely different subject. This is talking about alcoholic drinks supposedly marketed toward underage drinkers. Well I say they must be doing something right because I feel these drinks are marketed directly towards me and I am well over the legal drinking age.
Every store owner knows these drinks are alcoholic, and knows they can lose their license for selling products to anyone under age. Kids have always tried to get their hands on alcohol. packaging does not matter.
Exactly Thorndawg. Let the stores be responsible for checking ID. Any kid with alcohol can drink it in front of police or anyone for that matter without being caught. They don't do it by drinking out of funky colored cans, they do it by pouring the liquor into their coffee to-go mug or into their soda.
I remember people in college would drink beer in class by using the coffee canteen "trick". I don't remember any professor or the police catching them.
Don't forget how good those soda fountain cups are for hiding rum & coke. (looks around) Not... that... I... ever... did that. Or... did that on a day I had to give a presentation.... Hey, what's that over there?
My senior year I bought individual bottles of eggnog and took one to an evening class. Half my classmates made jokes about whether I had booze in there as well. When the professor walked in and asked the same thing, while chuckling, I had to resist the urge to ask if she was giving me permission to get drunk during her class. "So, just to be clear, you would be cool with me getting wasted and wouldn't report that as a violation of our Honor Code? Could I get that in writing?"
Yes, because us over 21s hate colors...and flavors. We want everything to be grey and taste like old milk.
As far as I'm concerned if anyone wishes to abuse alcohol, it's not anyone's business. Stopping the sale of any particular type of alcoholic beverage will not decrease the negative health issues, nor reduce the rate of drunk driving accidents. This is a silly as banning Joe Camel. If kids want to get high or smoke, they will do so regardless.
Schumer must figure on a close election and needs an "issue" to get his mug some free advertising.
I believe the manufacturers are aiming at 21 year olds. The problem now is that the average 21 year old has the mind of an infant, and the motivations of an early teenager!
Bright colors automatically mean the beverage is being marketed to underage drinkers? I thought the best way to get underage people to drink your product was to make it cheap.
This is getting as Bad as tobaccocompanies Yet no Anti commercials here and drinking is a big deal in High Schools colleges No reason we can't go after tobacco go after the alcohol companies the same as Big Tobacco "You Knew your product would cause harm" sue for billions in medical cost Police cost Rehab cost Wake up if we can raise cigarette taxes to make people quit the same logic applys to Alcohol If we hit the BIG T companies with cost of health cost let's do the same with Alcohol Tax the amount of Alcohol in the drinks 12% alcohol content +12% tax
While we are at it, let's tax skate-boarding, skiing, snow-boarding, soccer, football, swimming, fatty foods, salt, and every other product or activity that can lead to physical harm.
We need to govt to control our choices.
Why do liberals hate choice except when it comes to abortion?
We would all be better off if Charles Schumer could extract his head from his rectum.
another example of our freedoms being challenged by the socialist/marxist regime.
What? Are you serious?
It's just a politician looking for an issue for election day. It means NOTHING.
Haha! You're a buffoon! Do you even know anything about Marx or Socialism that you haven't learned through FOX news? By the way, you are only made to believe you are free. To elaborate, there's a beaten path in this country and you are only free to live the same way as everyone else. Those who don't choose to live the same path, either go to jail or are cast out of society as a whole. You're "freedoms" are typically just money making schemes too. Wake up, please.
yes, save us from our own stupidity. this is what's wrong with the country, we've got Aunt Sammy holding our hand and playing the over-protective mother. When wil we allow survival to take over and weed the duds out?
One senator says that a certain type of beverage is being marketed to people that aren't allowed to buy it... Then the government spends millions of dollars on research that is performed by a bunch of "experts" who haven't stepped foot outside of their lab in twenty years... Then the experts decide that the manufacturers are wrong for developing new products and those products are banned...
What ever happened to holding people accountable for their actions?
I cut my hand on some broken glass the other day. Maybe I should call my senator to see if she can get glass banned.
I think I'll go have a shot of Jager and chase it with a Redbull.
All the 12 year old strippers in the notable gentlemen's clubs drink Red Bull and Jack. They found a 12 year old in Dallas last month; said exotic dance was an art. That notable gentlemen's club did not even get the $100.00 fine?
Just stating what I've seen as a college student: Based on what I've seen, about 90% of the people that drink these beverages are underage. Around here in Tampa, it's considered the thing that all of the younger people drink, while the older people most often drink more expensive beers or liquor. Remember, this is just based on what I have seen myself. I have been around a lot of drinking, and most of the people at the parties around here are not even old enough to drink.
And banning these beverages would stop underage drinking? Would it even slow it down at all?
Probably not, but I would assume there are safer drinks out there than these. I don't believe you can ever actually slow down underage drinking, and definitely cannot stop it completely.
The only way they will ever stop, or put a huge dent in underage drinking is by lowering the drinking age.
Reggie,
I completely agree. If you're old enough to fight in Iraq, you should be old enough to drink. They don't need to get rid of the drinking, they just need to teach younger people how to drink responsibly.
Alcoholic drinks spiked with caffeine makes the drink favorable to those who are on a binge, yet have to drive to get to their homes. The alcohol content provides the desired effect of taking in alcohol, and to disguise or undermine its effect, caffeine is present in the drink. The problem is - does the caffeine content sufficiently or adequatrely reduce the effect of the alcohol to allow the drinker to have the mental ability to drive a vehicle? I believe it could not, because ther adverse effect of alcohol to the mental state of the drinker deprives him of such mental alertness tgo allow him to operate the vehicle safely. The presence of caffeine in the drink should not mislead the buyer.
Barracks Hussein Obummer has been pushing alcohol for energy. Senatur Smuck needs to get with the program.
These idiots are 5 billion in the hole, can't pass a budget, and this is the stupidity coming out of their mouths...morons! Never mind what I drink, it is none of your business, worry about your job moron, and do it for a change, and your job is not butting into citizens private lives with stupidity...
I dont like these drinks myself, but I do not blame the companies selling them for underage drinking. This is all part of the larger culture problem in the USA. Adults (p.c. types) harp on the dont do it line to teens then get blitzed themselves. I am born and raised in NE USA but believe the Europeans have a much better handle on this. Kids grow up with moderate exposure to alcohol - a glass of wine with dinner, for example - and therefore it isnt a big deal to them. Here its TABOO until that magical number age 21, when overnight at midnight you are suddenly "mature" enough... WTF???? who ever came up with that.
Congress (ever hear the line, Pro is the opposite of Con, so is Congress the opposite of Progress?) should get their own house in order before ever saying anything to the general population on any moral ground. Show me a congressman who hasnt been implicated in drinking usually while driving, gambling, prostitution, taking bribes - call it selling influence etc etc etc ad infinitum.
p.s. To JohnCarter. Not that I'm any political party's fan, but please, if you are going to post something at least be intelligent about it......or maybe you should go ahead and try drinking some of that alcohol you use to take a stab at the Pres. over. You could be the next Darwin Award recipient.
Alcohol as a fuel makes sense as a stepping stone, because the infrastructure already exists for a liquid fuel, IF it is derived from a source that doesnt impact other needs such as crops/farmland i.e. possibly algae originated.
Schumer loves for the government to dictate to us what is good for us. He thinks we are all idiots. Teens are not going to start drinking alcohol because the can is pretty.
Mixing alcohol and caffeine has been around since caffeine and alcohol were invented. Whiskey and Coke has been a favorite drink for decades.
The liberals think we are all incapable of taking care of ourselves and need a nanny to control us.
Who needs alcohol in their kiddie fruit juice when you can easily buy a medical pot card for $99. even if you are under age.
~7-8 years ago, every bar I was in had a special drink menu of Red Bull + (insert alcohol) and I naively thought it was the 20-something crowd that was behind that push. What an idiot I was! Clearly it was all the teens drinking there. And it wasn't anything to do with those bar drinks being so popular that led to these drinks being made. Thanks for clearing that up Chuckie!
Now If you'll excuse me, I have to go bang my head against a wall in frustration for several hours.