Eric Weddle, writing for the Journal & Courier, has an article about caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Apparently they’re sweetened malt liquors, caffeinated, and have a higher alcohol content than, say, beer. Folks pound them, and then keep going because, with the caffeine, they don’t go down when they’re too drunk.
Because of the recent hospitalizations in connection with some Central Washington students’ use of the drink, we can probably expect some “ripped from the headlines” approach to lawmaking in the near future. But, from personal experience, I can say that this mix of booze & caffeine is nothing new. During my stupidest level of college drinking, it wasn’t unusual for me to rotate between beers and coffee toward the end of the night. Keeping myself awake long enough to get myself drunker was clearly a Bad Idea. If your body is trying to shut down to deal with all the alcohol you’ve been pumping in, don’t be a hero. Just go down.
Mahon said the drink’s caffeine content prevents the body from combating alcohol, a depressant, with sleep. That leads to people consuming more alcohol and becoming even more intoxicated.
Mahon said research shows that mixing caffeine and alcohol makes people more likely to ride with an intoxicated driver or to be taken advantage of sexually.
In my case, it’s possible the former may have happened, but I’m reasonably confident the latter never did.
In any case, after I’d passed that point in my drinking habits, I had some friends who were into drinking Red Bull and vodka. That was never appealing to me; but I guess these new drinks are just a continuation.
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