It is obvious to me that they are trying to target kids and it is inexcusable. I thought current laws prohibit marketing or sales of ANY alcoholic beverage to minors. If that's not the case, fix it. Those energy drinks are potentially very addictive.

We should all live like Saints in Disney Land.
If you don't drink it, then keep your nose out of it.

Underage drinking? The US is the ONLY country in the world that has such a fascist stranglehold on alcohol, yet we are the ONLY country with an alcohol problem. The religious-right only distorts the situation, weakening our senses and crippling our views of what is truly right and wrong. Wake up, stop making stupid, pointless rules and regulations that originates from religious superstitions, thousands of years old. This is not 1920, give me a break.

What is this? The US is the only country in the world with an alcohol problem? Well my goodness, better tell that to....I don't know....the former Soviet Union, where they're so desperate for booze that 42,000 of them die from 'fake' alcohol a year, never mind the ones that die from 'real' alcohol: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5111762.stm.

And how about the UK: "Alcohol is one of the most dangerous and damaging drugs in Britain today," Dr. Harris said. "Excessive boozing kills four times as many people as drug abuse. It is one of the main causes of anti-social, aggressive and violent behaviour. It causes huge problems for the health service - for accident and emergency departments as well as doctors treating the effects of long-term alcohol abuse, such as liver damage and heart disease." (from http://alcoholism.about.com/b/a/020073.htm )

How about in India, Mexico and Nigeria? http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-4/243.pdf

And France? Let's don't forget about France: http://www.news-medical.net/?id=14713

Please don't assume that Americans are the only people with alcohol problems. That's naive at best, willfully blind at second-best. What it is at worst would probably fall into the category of an /ad hominem/ attack.

Personally, I don't see the point in mixing a depressant and a stimulant into one drink, but that's just me.

What are you talking about Angela? I am referring to SOCIAL / POLITICAL problems related to alcohol within our culture. In America, alcohol is treated like botulism, in Europe, alcohol is treated like FOOD… I meant to point out how our puritan 'government' has imposed inappropriate legislation upon something that isn't that big of a deal, thus causing the exact opposite effect they initially were trying to achieve. What do you take me as, an idiot? I am well aware of the PHYSICAL / MEDICAL problems related to alcohol consumption... and I am not implying that America is the only country that has liver-related diseases. Don't patronize me!

Oh, and to counter your URL digging:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1984.tb00252.x
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States
http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/kb.html
http://suabroad.syr.edu/accepted/healthSafety/socializingSafely/
http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cathprot.htm

There are plenty of websites that explain the CULTURAL differences in Europe and the US, regarding alcohol.

well done, angela and quinn. this is what the world needs. Someone to not take "Word" as
"Fact". Searching the databases is the only way to really uncover the true problems. KUDOS

Where to Begin. I agree, for the most of the part, to what you both said.
Personally, when is the line gonna be drawn? They want to outlaw Baggy Pants in Atlanta. When is this gonna stop? Seems the war on terror has led our country into, not just but one, but many wars that cannot, and shouldn't be won. It is a sad day that we have to exist in this type of government. If our values are supposed to be
superimposable by our president, then what is the purpose of election?
Now, combining Alcohol and Caffeine. This is stupid. If it is labeled as alcohol and caffeine, if the persons are "carded" at the time of purchase, if the persons are aware of alcohol consumption (which is listed on the label) I don't see the big deal. The government needs to take a step back and focus on the real problems in our society like, homelessness and drug abuse. Forget about the stuff that can be avoided by proper education. From my previous posts, You may know that I am not a fan of the DARE program. If caffeine and alcohol are our major problems then we should move to Canada or anywhere in Europe where they don't have the problems we do. Yet, their alcohol and drug freedoms are less regulated.

If we want to correct the problem, we need to lift all the government regulation. When in Europe on a Weekend night, It was quite mild. People out having fun, but nothing like hanging outside of a bar in downtown Boston. Everyone over "there" was just out to enjoy themselves and not overindulge. This is where typical Americans go wrong. We can't have just 1 or 2 drinks, potato chips, chocolates, we overindulge. No wonder why we are the joke of every country. We are, for the most part, fat and lazy.
It certainly isn't because of freedom. though some would argue. it isn't because of lady liberty.
WE AS AMERICANS ARE TAUGHT FROM THE VERY BEGINING TO ALWAYS BE THE BEST AND ALWAYS WANT MORE. This isn't a government issue, it is a societal issue. We all have addictions. We need to lift the regulations, list properly the dire consequences on labels, then leave it up to the consumer to either partake or wish to not partake, case closed. Enough of this "place blame where blame is due" stuff. If a consumer wants to take part, he/she has waved rights to any said activity. Obviously, there are exceptions In the case of poisonings (which are not listed on the label). Alas, we need to change our ways. We as people, need to change our approach to the problems in the world and the USA. Restriction isn't the key, Knowledge and freedom of choice is the key.

Webdog got what I was trying to say:

"we should move to Canada or anywhere in Europe where they don't have the problems we do. Yet, their alcohol and drug freedoms are less regulated."

Thanks!

It never ceases to amaze me how government bureaucrats are always so two faced but also always want more and more regulations to control every aspect of our lives.

If government bureaucrats were truly concerned about children and their health they wouldn't keep absconding more tax dollars to fund failed and failing "education". I place quotation marks around education because that doesn't exist in our public schools. The "education" there is nothing more than indoctrination and brainwashing to make our children workers for the state and nothing more.

The government would also keep its nose out of indoctrinating our kids into promiscuity, having sex at earlier and earlier ages with the resultant sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancies and life-threatening HIV and AIDS viruses. They also would not glorify sodomy as some kind of natural sexual inclination rather than an abhorration of nature.

I say keep the government away from our children. As far away as possible. It isn't the "village" (Hillary's government-control of children's entire lives)responsible for our kids. It is US. We parents, aunts/uncles, siblings, grandparents and local communities.

Tobacco kills 450,000 Americans per year, alcohol 125,000, and marijuana 0. Yet 12 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana charges since 1970, with many going to jail and losing their cars, homes and even custody of their children. If you don't think children can see through the hypocrisy of this "message," you are seriously out of touch with the intellectual prowess of children.

Marijuana prohibition is a counterproductive fraud. It is an intellectually bankrupt policy that is causing far more harm than legalized marijuana ever could.

darral,
I very much agree with what you have to say. As you probably know, there are many ways and perspectives to look at any given issue. Simply put, the laws toward things such as Marijuana are made through associations which are actually quite true. I personally have never met a hardcore drug user, and I do know many from my old circles, that haven't smoked pot. However, I know tons of people who have gotten drunk and smoked tobacco who have never smoked pot. This is obviously a simplified perspective but it is really the type of rationale that is used in our system. I know the whole "gateway drug" terminology has been thrown around. It doesn't mean that all people who smoke pot will use other illicit drugs, but a majority of the time, the people who use "harder drugs" have started off using Marijuana.
As for the drug laws themselves, they need to be thrown out and reimplemented using scientific research to categorize them based on criteria such as: addictiveness, mind-altering capacity, ease in overdose. But then, the coffee and cigarette crowd would be really pissed.