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Crisis In A Can

Caffeine is pervasive, addictive and a favoured drug among Canadian adults. It’s also a substantial ingredient and selling point of the new energy drink trend spreading to our children. How far will it go before we can say enough is enough?

Earlier this summer, while in the playground with my children, I found myself watching a group of children aged 7-9 years old drinking and discussing energy drinks. One of the young boys lost his grip and dropped his can to the ground. I felt some short lived satisfaction as the sand drank it up, only to have it replaced by disbelief when not two minutes later he returned with a fresh can – and even more disturbingly – bragged that it was his fourth can of the day.

The recommended intake on the can does not accommodate children, but gives and adult limit of one can, 1-2 times a day. Elementary school-aged children are quite obviously not mature enough to use such products responsibly. There are many adults that chose to abuse caffeine; that’s their choice and their problem. Our children are our problem.  Studies have shown that excessive consumption of energy drinks can result in heart irregularities and high blood pressure. Yet we remain to be puzzled as to how and why people as young as the age of 10 are dying of heart attacks.

The drink of choice for the children on the playground that day was called Cobra: Berry. Not unlike Red Bull, this beverage contains enough caffeine and sugar to require warning labels on the can such as:

NOT RECOMMMENDED FOR DIABETICS AND CAFFEINE SENSITIVE PERSONS.

Also disclosed on this particular label are the words:

KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN

This information alone should be sufficient to keep such beverages out of children’s reach.  Much more importantly: out of their bodies.

We live in a society of Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity; our children are distracted in class, and pulling all-nighters to play video games. The last thing we need is over-caffeinated 8 year olds. Allowing our children to consume such drinks is both overindulgence and neglect.  It is allowing them to use caffeine at an age when their bodies cannot handle it. It also promotes the casual use of a very addictive drug which allows other addictive drugs to appear more acceptable.

I recently found an unsettling example of exactly how this progression is in fact built into the marketing of one such drink.  Blow Energy Drink Mix is a highly caffeinated white powdered drink mix that comes packaged with a mirror and fake credit card. This “mirrors” another very addictive drug, cocaine. Commonly referred to as “blow”, cocaine is often accessorized with a credit card of some sort to crush it up, and a mirror to put it on before inhaling it.  This is obviously a shameful way to promote demand and a risk taking lifestyle to children; this generation’s scary equivalent to my generation’s “Popeye” candy cigarettes. Luckily, this particular drink mix product is not approved for sale in Canada, not because of its uncanny resemblance to cocaine, but because of the dangerous amount of caffeine contained in the mix. Canadians are safe from it for now, but it is only a matter of time before our children are exposed to such things.

One of the regulations for the sale of energy drinks in Canada is that it is not to be used by children. If this is the case then why are these products still finding their way into those small hands? Retailers are sharp enough to realize that children are not bringing the drink home for mom or dad. If we want to regulate what our children are consuming there should be an age requirement to purchase such products.  They also shouldn’t be allowed to be purchased in vending machines or, especially, school cafeterias. This type of unrestricted sale allows anyone of any age to buy them.

While some adults may think that we need 6 large coffees a day to function, we are fully grown adults whose bodies (for better or worse) are done developing and have some tolerance for the abuse we demand they take.  We are, however, sending our children the wrong message. Aside from setting a good example, we should focus on how to limit the availability of things that can seriously endanger them.  Just because caffeine use has been sanctioned through social acceptance, that acceptance needs to be limited to the adult world which doesn’t make it any less harmful to the bodies of our kids.  We all need to know what our children are doing and what’s going in their growing bodies, and talk and educate them about the things that can be harmful to them.

~ Connie LaSaga