BLACKOUT IN A CAN: Michigan and Oklahoma have banned the sale of energy drinks that contain alcohol, and other states and cities are considering the same. Caffeine can reduce the sedative effects of alcohol, allowing a person to drink for longer periods of time, Temple's Gould says.
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Party beverages that go by "blackout in a can" and other monikers may soon be banned from store shelves in some U.S. states, thanks to a number of incidents that have left drinkers unconscious and with dangerously high blood alcohol levels.
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) last week effectively prohibited the sale of all alcoholic energy drinks after considering several studies regarding such beverages as well as concerns voiced by substance abuse prevention and parental groups, the general public, and an ongoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation. The Commission called the packaging of these products "misleading," and an attempt to appeal to younger customers "encouraging excessive consumption while mixing alcohol with various other chemical and herbal stimulants." The ban takes effect in early December.
The MLCC pointed out that a typical alcoholic energy drink is 24 ounces (0.7 liters) and has a 12 percent alcohol content—compared with a 12-ounce (0.35-liter) can of beer, which normally has 4 to 5 percent—plus the caffeine equivalent of five cups of coffee. Some of the beverage lines singled out for their 12 percent alcohol content were Associated Brewing's Axis, United Brands's Max and Phusion Projects's Four Loko offerings. The commission concluded that a person need only consume one can of such a beverage to become intoxicated—and that because these drinks typically cost $2 to $5 per can they are "easily accessible and affordable."
Such beverages were in the news last month when nine Central Washington University students were hospitalized following a party. The blood alcohol levels of the students—who were all under the age of 21 at the time of the incident—ranged from 0.123 to 0.35. (A blood alcohol concentration of 0.3 can be lethal.) That school and others have since banned such drinks from campus pending further investigation.
Not far from Michigan, Chicago's City Council proposed its own ban on energy drinks that contain alcohol. Michigan and Oklahoma are the only states so far to ban such beverages, but New York is considering the same, and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board last week asked its licensed sellers to voluntarily stop selling and promoting alcoholic energy drinks such as Four Loko.
Whereas the combination of alcohol and caffeine is nothing new—rum and Coke, anyone?—this new breed of beverage is not meant to be sipped or served on the rocks. Scientific American asked Thomas Gould, an associate professor of psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia, to explain what happens to the body when large amounts of alcohol and caffeine are consumed simultaneously, why such drinks appeal to some drinkers, and the potential consequences of overindulgence.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
What effect does the simultaneous consumption of alcohol and caffeine have on the body?
Alcohol is a sedative. It works in part by potentiating the GABAergic neurotransmitter system. GABA [gamma-aminobutyric acid] is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. When the neurons in the brain release GABA, it acts to slow down or inhibit other neural processes. This can reduce anxiety, increase relaxation while sedating a person. With higher levels of alcohol, problems can arise as important neural and other bodily systems become overinhibited and shut down.
Compared to alcohol, caffeine is on the other end of the spectrum of psychoactive drugs in that it is a stimulant. Caffeine is an antagonist for the neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter; so similar to GABA, adenosine can dampen or inhibit other neural processors. With caffeine, we have a double negative in that it inhibits an inhibitory neurotransmitter and thus increase levels of arousal and alertness—but higher doses can produce nervousness, anxiety and tachycardia.
One thing both drugs do is increase dopamine levels. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with reward. One thing all drugs of abuse have in common is the ability to activate the dopamine system. The ability of alcohol and caffeine to stimulate the dopamine system may be one factor contributing to their use.
Because the drugs in a sense have opposite effects, one might expect that simultaneous consumption may reduce the effects that are seen when each drug is administered alone, but it really is not as simple as that. Some effects may be reduced while others are increased, and this may vary as the doses of the drugs vary.
Why might someone—an underage drinker in particular—want to drink a beverage that combines alcohol and caffeine?
Caffeine can reduce the sedative effects of alcohol; this may allow someone to drink for longer periods of time. In addition, evidence suggests that caffeine and alcohol together may be more rewarding than alone. This could be due to both drugs producing increases in dopamine levels, which as discussed is involved in reward.
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22 Comments
Add CommentThis is just foolish. If the folks who want these drinks can't get the brands that are being scrutinized here, they will just turn to other alternatives. You can't ban the sale of heavily caffeinated substances and alcohol, so it seems pretty ridiculous. Once again, people trying to tell other people what they want or can/should have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are these drinks dangerous? Stupidity on the part of the people drinking them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI though that US (West)is a free society where poeple can eat, drink, wear and live as they want; it is not controlled by government. Only governments in China, Iran and Arab countries are accused on controlling people's food, drink and dress. In "free society" people should be informed on wrong paths but the choice should be left to them. Otherise, it is a two pary dictatorship in west instead of usual one party in China or Arab countries.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"C", Hellooooo! This is a SCIENCE website, and science is all about the pursuit of knowledge, not suppression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe lack of maturity of 18 year olds versus 25 year olds is a fact that has been around for >10,000 years. Science has merely confirmed and explained it. Grow up and get over your arrogant attitude of "my intuition is superior to your data". (Frankly, a lot of 18 years olds are more mature than a lot of 38 years olds)
Ironically, 200 years ago, soldiers older than 25 were preferred for their greater maturity and experience (very important when you had to make your own ammunition, survive off the land, repair your weapons & tools with pieces of metal--not pre-made parts, etc). Sadly, today immature minds often make "better" soldiers, as has been tragically demonstrated by child soldiers in many parts of the world.
The article does focus too much on youth and neglects the additional dangers to more (physically) 'mature' drinkers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor one, the combination can cause dangerous increases in blood pressure. Once a few Irish coffees raised my systolic BP from it's normal 120-130 to close to 180. (So I switched to decaf Irish coffee)
I say let 'em drink - and take themselves out of the gene pool before they can procreate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInformation is power and although this is not new information, it is important. What you have when you mix alcohol with a stimulant, is a wide awake drunk. Body size, being male or female and the type of stimulant added is also important. The key issue here is the amount of alcohol and the mg of caffeine. An average cup of coffee is 150mg, but a Starbucks can vary from 350mg to 500mg per cup. “Speedballs” have long been known to drug aficionados who want to go up and down at the same time. Whats new?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdenswel,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are right, science is about the pursuit of knowledge, not its suppression (something I never advocated). It is also not about making things up w/o proof, using fuzzy concepts like "maturity" as if they could be rigorously defined, or cramming data into your own prejudices by taking it out of context.
For instance, has anyone examined the types of establishments where these drinks are popular? It is certainly relevant, as "hook up" clubs are inherently more dangerous than quiet local bars, since people go there to...hook up with strangers. Most such places have dancefloors and caffeine is a reasonable choice for people who want to be energetic into the late hours of the night. If this is the case, caffeinated drinks would be correlated with people getting into dangerous situations. It does not make these drinks more dangerous than other alcohol. This is a hypothesis, not a proof, but please don't blather about the superiority of your "data" until you have used some bloody intuition to examine all reasonable causes of that data. Did you know that the murder rate is correlated with ice cream sales (both rise in summer)? OMG, ban ice cream!
Although this article does not mention white matter in the brain, SciAm has repeatedly made weaselly statements to the effect that white matter is the cause of maturity (people over 25 have more of it). In order to prove this claim, you'd have to stimulate white matter production in a 5 yr old and see if it magically turned the kid into a miniature adult capable of holding a serious job and paying the phone bill on time. Such an experiment is not only unethical but utterly ridiculous. Why would nature work like that? Can you please offer some kind of hypothetical mechanism for how a few coats of myelin can add decades of life experience?
My point is that it is the life experience that is important, and we can't quantify nor even qualify how the brain represents that life experience. It's grossly unscientific to claim otherwise. Furthermore, it is dangerous to write off the mental processes of an entire class of people by hiding behind shady science. Some teenagers are currently subjected to abuses that make people cringe when done to terrorists. This is done legally, with no due process, because teenagers' brains are immature and they can't be dealt with as if they were human beings.
I am a physicist, a hard scientist. "Social science" is practically a liberal art. You can claim rigor when you can give me 5 sigma of certainty and accept some criticism of your methods.
A classical combination of caffeine and alcohol is called cuba libre (Coca-Cola plus rum), it's hardly conceivable that fans miss such kind of alternatives to energetic alcoholic drinks, but the spread of informations like this is very good, people needs to be aware of dangers involved in apparently innocent and risk free products on sale
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMixing alcohol and caffeine seems pretty lame to anyone that grew up in the 60's or 70's. Well-intentioned but misguided efforts to "protect our youth" by banning their drugs of choice will not stop self-destructive behaviors. I would think that by now this fact would be widely known.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut wow...five cups of coffee and five beers in one can?
One thing I disagree with this articles author is the assumption that the person consuming these drinks is under the impression that they are seeking to be less intoxicated. These drinks are being consumed to further enjoy the intoxicating effects by being more awake and aware of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut those people may be against public safty before they die from alcohol. just like smoking. Someday they may die from lung caner. But the passive smoking still damage other people who not smoke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article also disccussed about the problem induced by mixture drinks, like the increase of alcohol consumption and false sense of security.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut I think you are right, it discussed not too much about people heathy affected by these drinks.
I agree that!! Adult should take response for their healthy. But we still need to think about how to protect adolescent from alcohol damage.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTotally agree! We can't just allow them to drink all they want, let the tragedies happen, and then wait for them being taken out of the gene pool naturally. Innocent People would be sacrificed in the car wrecks or any other accidents caused by their carelessness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think this article mainly targets adolescents. It does point out that the level of dopamine would be doubled, which is associated with the feeling of reward. In other words, it might encourage more drinking, or even be addictive. And, as noted up there, over intake of alcohol might result in cognitive impairment. Specifically, other than slow responding time and poor decision making, memory loss might be a problem as well. Studies found that those excessive-drinkers did poorly on memory-related task compared to the control group (http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/dementia/a/blacer030617.htm). I personally think the effects on cognition in adults can not be taken lightly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think this article mainly targets adolescents. It does point out that the level of dopamine would be doubled, which is associated with the feeling of reward. In other words, it might encourage more drinking, or even be addictive. And, as noted up there, over intake of alcohol might result in cognitive impairment. Specifically, other than slow responding time and poor decision making, memory loss might be a problem as well. Studies found that those excessive-drinkers did poorly on memory-related task compared to the control group (http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/dementia/a/blacer030617.htm). I personally think the effects on cognition in adults can not be taken lightly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere should be a warning label to inform the high alcohol and caffine content. For adult, they should be responsible for theirselves. And underage people are forbidden purchasing the alcohol energy drinks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't agree more. I think this type of drink is just like cigarette. We can't ban it before the direct link between the alcohol energy drinks and the alcoholism is found. At best, we can require warnings on the ads or cans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheck out this story done by Boise State University student newspaper, 'The Arbiter'. It focuses on Four Loko and asks readers how they feel about the ban. http://arbiteronline.com/?p=60409
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow a days we all are very busy for our work and many people travel by there own vehicle. Some they take alcoholic energy drink for take out their work pressure even when they drive their car and some time they face accident suddenly. IF you have any accident insurance, you are protected financially. <a href="http://gosankolaw.com/" rel="follow">Accident Injury Lawyers</a> can help you to get the claim you have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTeens are clearly increasing their caffeine consumption, mainly with energy drinks, and I find it dangerous. It is even worse now that they add alcohol to caffeine: they get the hyperactivity from an energy drink with caffeine plus the disinhibition from the alcohol. There is a recent study from the Queensland University of Technology's Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation showing that heavy drinking during adolescence had a direct effect on a part of the brain that could be irreversibly damaged. What is the link with energy drinks? They allows kids to drink alcohol for a longer period of time... Caffeine itself is not to blame: medical studies show that it can be great in moderation for adults: http://ephedrinewheretobuy.com/ephedrine-where-to-buy-eca-stacks/coffee-a-true-wonder-drug -- but not for teens, and definitely not in association with alcohol. We will not prevent young people to be young :) but we must inform them about these risks.
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