People may have read, or seen in the news lately that a 14 year old schoolgirl in the UK died, after drinking 2 can's of the Monster Energy Drink.

Now, there SHOULD already be an age restriction on these types of Caffeine Energy Drinks, but that is clearly being ignored by retailers.

So, do you think that these types of drinks should be banned, or tougher restrictions put into place on them?


Personally, I think that the restrictions should be made tougher, forcing fines on Retailers who sell to anybody under 18. As they do with Alcohol here in the UK. A retail shop I worked in, for a number of years, wouldn't sell Relentless, Monster or Red Bull to anybody under the age of 16, and Photo ID must be shown on request.

What do you all think? Are there any parents here who don't allow their children to drink these drinks?

To be honest I don't drink them, I don't see what is so good about them (nothing) and why everyone drinks them so much, but I just think that there are a lot of bad things about them that aren't worth going through. There are kids I know in my school who live and thrive on this monster/ red bull garbage. I had 1 little cup of redbull at school for a test experiment to see if it would improve performance on tests last year (ridiculous right?) I have to say it tasted awful. I have never had monster or redbull other than that one time. I just don't like it and I personally don't see whats so great about it.

So yes I agree there should be age restrictions on this stuff. It is dangerous to have to much of it. So I agree completely, I am just fine with drinking dr pepper and sprite.

I definitely do NOT think energy drinks should be banned.    What happened to that girl is extremely unfortunate, but it's not something that happens often at ALL.  I can count the number of 'deaths by energy drink' I've ever heard about on one hand.  I bet there are people who have died from drinking too much coffee as well....... there will always be cases where some people are more sensitive to chemicals than the people around them.

That being said... do I -personally- condone younger kids drinking them? Absolutely not!!!! In fact, I've been incredibly astounded to hear about 8 year olds who regularly drink red bull and their parents LET them.  What is wrong with those parents?!?  Eight year olds should have no reason to need a boost of energy.... they should be naturally young and full of sprite as it is!  I think it's such a shame that kids are allowed to drink something so bad for you and even addictive.

Like Razor, I do not drink Energy Drinks. I tried one, and I hated it. All of my friends love it for some reason. But I don't think they should have them banned for that. There should be tougher age restrictions, and then maybe less people will die from it(unless there parents let them have the drink).  I don't think any of my friends have ever had a problem from the stuff, so maybe she was just reckless.

Pokegeek : I used to drink Energy drinks, but only one every few days while I was working ridiculous shifts between two jobs. Being a diabetic, I know that I should have probably gone with Coffee or something else, rather than taking a Can of monster within a few minutes.

Normally, the cans say things like "Do not consume if you have are pregnant, or suffer from any of the following; Asthma, Diabetes (and a few others I can't quite remember what they are now).

I don't drink energy drinks and I think it should at least have an age restriction. I don't get why some of my classmates are addicted to Monster, Red Bull, Sting, Cobra, and all those kinds of energy drinks. They taste awful... and I'd rather drink regular coffee. I also have some weird palpitations once in awhile and a history of asthma attacks from when I was a kid, so I'm very cautious with what I drink and eat. I don't see any good out of energy drinks as it just literally make you a zombie with no energy left but widely awake.

I don't think they should be banned altogether, but there should definitely be restrictions for who can buy them. A good idea would be to make it so no one under 18 can buy energy drinks, so that way there wouldn't be kids or teens dying from drinking too many. I've never drank an energy drink in my life, and I most likely never will because I'd rather not get over-hyped on caffeine. I'm sure energy drinks are fine once in a while when you need something to get you going, but if you drink them all the time they will cause problems eventually.

I think that there should be some kind of age restriction. Probably so you have to be 16 or older to  have it.

There should definitely be an age restriction, but I don't think they should be all-together banned. They are helpful for some people, the major problem lies in the young kids who consume copious amounts and... well... die.

I know on some labels it says things like 1 can per 6 hours and 3 cans max per day it's the users fault or possibly a pre existing condition 

I am not sure that energy drinks should just go. They should have a system a like to alcohol meaning you are only allowed to drink a certain amount of caffeine in a day so these tragedies like the death of that 14 year old girl will not happen legally. Personally I manly hate energy drinks but there is one that is an exception to my list, that one is a big exception since it is also my favourite drink! That drink being Mountain Dew!

SheLikesCloth : The already is an age restriction however it is not followed by many shops.

I agree with Singelli. There might be cases where drinking too much of them at once might have been a FACTOR in the death, but I seriously doubt that it was the only factor. Might have been due to bad reaction, maybe some of those kids weren't exactly healthy in the first place, they likely drank these things on a regular basis irresponsibly, or the kids might have drank a LOT more than the parents claimed they did. I mean think about it. A parent's kid dies drinking 10 cans of these things in a couple hours. If they told the media that they let their kid drink that many of them, what is everyone's reaction going to be? Blame the drink or blame the parents? Wouldn't be surprised if some just said "Oh no, it was only 1 or 2. They didn't drink a whole case". Not saying this happened in this girl's case, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the death cases applied to that scenario.

I think saying you have to be 16 is pretty valid. It isn't something so dangerous that a teenager can't have it, but it definitely isn't something younger children remotely need or can be responsible with (although how responsible are 16 year old kids?). But not near as restricted as alcohol. We already have massive amounts of caffeine in things like pop. They will get caffeine another way. We are living in a time where more and more people are developing caffeine addictions. That condition where if you go a few days (even just one day) without a pop, you spend the whole day with a pounding headache. My wife is kind of there. She has been working hard to wean herself off of it. Not just throwing out caffeine, but have it occasionally instead of everyday. We go a month or 2 at a time with minimal pop. Don't buy it for the house, and only drink it when we go out to eat, to a movie, etc. But it is difficult. 

Drinking super caffeinated drinks like the energy drinks is just going to make that dependency worse. But that really isn't a matter of safety to yourself and others like the restrictions of alcohol are. This is more smokeless tobacco where you really are only hurting yourself (only in a non caner way). So I don't think we should have some adult only restriction. But little kids should NOT be drinking the stuff.

No, I don't think so. There should only be restrictions on them.  You should be drinking that much anyway.

Since from the knowledge I had obtained last year I know how energy drinks can be fatal when one endulges too much.

NO I love my Redbull its better than a cup of coffee in the morning and keeps me going with out much of a crash cause I drink the Sugar free kind thats my spiel on it thats all for now Lots love peace and unity

I don't think they should, mostly because I do drink them here and there, but if they do, then you'll have a lot of people say like "Oh, get rid of energy drinks, but keep selling alcoholic drinks"

I wouldn't ban them, but I would put an age limit to how old you must be to drink energy drinks. Although that event was unfortunate, it was just sad luck. But, people should try to drink less energy/caffeine drinks and eat some fruits! And, banning them should only occur if many accidents happen on purpose.

Should Energy Drinks be banned?,well I think energy drinks shouldn't be banned. Personally I see no health issues with drinking them moderately but I do think they should be age restricted. To be honest banning food products is kind of ridiculous to me because adults should have the right right to eat whatever food product they want within reason as long as they are safe for general public consumption and grow in season.

Banned? No way!

But rather than an age restriction, how about decreasing the amount per can?

I used to drink Monster, but I could never finish a can because the amount was too much for me. Now I just drink this Japanese energy drink called Oronamin C. The bottle is barely as tall as an average human hand, but it's very sufficient and I feel like it works better than coffee or any other energy drinks I've ever tried.

Singelli :
This post just nails it. Too much caffeine is horrible for you, regardless of age. You won't see any studies on its effect on adults or children because the design would basically have to be "here's a ton of energy drinks, drink it all so we can see if you get seriously sick or die from it" Excess caffeine can be toxic to the heart, but you really have to drink gallons of it, but high caffeine intake will cause high blood pressure, sleep disturbances, and most commonly, chronic headaches. I want to stress the sleep disturbance because it really isn't common knowledge how long it stays in your system. Regardless of how much is in your system, your liver can break down exactly half of it every 6hours. So for example, you drink an energy drink after school/work. Most have the caffeine equivalent of at least 2, usually 3 cups of coffee. So if you have one at 5 PM, you still have the equivalent of 1.5 cups of coffee (+100 mg of caffeine or more) still in your system at 11PM. Naturally this can affect sleep. And when kids are still growing, the proper amount of sleep is critical in development.

So with all this said, sure kids should take responsibility for their health, its a part of growing up. But should it be banned because parents are letting them have drinks like this? Absolutely not it shouldn't be banned. Parents should understand the risks, be educated, and at the very least, just use some common sense.  Take a few seconds and think about what  they do, and your kid's overall health, that really shouldn't be too much to ask.

/end rant