Energy Drinks - The "new" gateway drug?

Energy drinks...generally carbonated soft drinks laced with all sorts of plant extracts generally offering 'stimulating' of 'focus' effects (or 'highs') . Formulated science waters can offer all sorts of modern day concoctions - with vitamins and minerals as well as recommended dietary 'supplements' mixed into water and a slash of 'natural' colour and flavour too, perhaps.

'Energy' drinks are nothing new. Can you imagine a cave-person slugging back on icy cold bottle of refreshingly tasty cola...a concoction packed up the ying-yang with sugar and caffeine?

It'd be like a modern day hill billy high on some pure Mexican shard ('crystal meth')-CHAOS!!

And yet it's beyond that now with 2000> energy drinks offering all sorts of 'exotic' berries and plant extracts. It's like a South American Stimulant crossed with Asian focus powders. Who needs that much concentration?!?

What's a bit more concerning is the classification of caffeine as a 'food' rather than a 'drug'. Has pure caffeine have any nutritional value over say ye-yo (cocaine)?  In that case why isn't cocaine considered a culinary offering from Mexico and Mexico's neighbours? A culinary offering that North American's happen to LOVE!!

So with seemingly no rules or regulations surrounding 'energized'+sugar-laden beverages and their sale...other than the ridiculous prices attached to them.

And as the juiced up techno-teens that grew up downing the popular branded energy drinks now reach drinking age, they are simply 'ruski-ing up/Irishing up/Scotching up' (adding alcohol to) their favourite energy drink.

Nothing like a stimulant/depressant drug cocktail to chase the blues away!

Oh and the other caffeine 'junkies' are the stereotypical 'workers' - Coffee addicts. Pods, bags, espresso, double-shot, etc all chasing their next hit of caffeine...living life from on drum of ground beans to the next.

Interested to know what contains caffeine? If so, below is some information  relevant to your interest :)

Food -- Caffeine content

Percolated coffee -- 60-120 mg/250 mL cup

Formulated caffeinated beverages or ' Energy' Drinks -- 80 mg/250 mL can

Instant coffee (1 teaspoon/cup) -- 60-80 mg/250 mL cup

Tea -- 10-50 mg/250 mL cup

"Coca Cola" -- 48.75 mg/375 mL can

Milk Chocolate -- 20 mg/100g bar

Designer Drugs of 2012 and Beyond

Personally think it's hilarious that there were two allotments of time given on National Television in the past <24 hours on the subject of 2012 designer drugs developed specifically to bypass ill-advised legislation (referred to as 'poisons' in some regions no less) and create their developers and manufacturers (and everyone in between) a SHIT LOAD of Cha-ching $$$ !!!

A law enforcement officer admitted, on recorded video that he 'was not a chemist' but essentially knew how the crafty devils get around the laws (current). A wise monkey that one.

And doctors are 'worried' about the consequences of ever-emerging NEW "designer" substances? I wonder if the potential for something really untested to reach the LEGAL market concerns them more than the substances that creates the demand for them in the first place - i.e. Does cannabis use 'worry' them as much as a newly released 'legal high' created to mimic marijuana?

I really feel for the victims of 'designer' drug use, and drug use and misuse in general. However I do not feel that the blame should be placed on the substance itself, but rather those that push people towards the consumption of these risky substances because they want to prohibit 'drug' use.

The TV Shows were both on the 7 network of Australia.

-Anon2012

The Australian 'Drug War' - Finally a topic of discussion

Recently Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr (to those that forgot, Kevin Rudd quit the position) spoke up about the Drug War being a failure in Australia with a report to come.

According to ABC News:

 A group of eminent Australians, including former federal police chief Mick Palmer and former New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, are about to hand down a report which says the 'war on drugs' has failed and concluding that Australia should consider legalising some substances.

...Australian Medical Association president Dr Steve Hambleton also believes a debate about how best to tackle drugs is overdue.

Think about that for a second. The former premier of New South Wales (NSW) and current foreign minister...along with a former Australian Federal Police Chief and former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions believe Australia has progressed to the stage where sensible drug policy is at least a topic of discussion in an political environment usually consisting of mining assets, 'education', climate change, and who the leader is.

Bob Carr stated the obvious in saying that police resources are wasted hunting down cannabis users and those outside nightclubs with ecstasy....and that people that use certain drugs should not be labeled as criminals and suffer the consequences of such a label (i.e. inability to travel to certain areas)

Already the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, has expressed an opposing view to that of...you know, experts.

According to Sydney Morning Herald:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has rejected the idea of decriminalising narcotics, saying tough policing is necessary instead to prevent the devastating consequences of drug use.

Which just goes to show that she only supports scientifically backed evidence when it supports her decision to introduce a new tax on everyday Australians.

What irritates me perhaps the most are those that dismiss the concept of discussion of the subject - Old school prohibitionists with their blinders on.

When anyone questioned the carbon tax they were labelled as people living in the dark ages and spoken down to being told something along the lines of "ZOMG the sky isn't going to fall!"

However it seems the sky would in fact fall if cannabis or MDMA (ecstasy) were to be legalised :S

Other interesting points of note about this recent news is that Bob Carr's brother reportedly died of a heroin overdose in the 80's and that Bob Carr was the premier of NSW when the 'Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre' was opened, which has since been proven to be a success and made a permanent fixture.

In other drug news "Ecstasy with a street value of $120,000 has been seized in the NSW city of Wollongong. A police raid on a home at Blackbutt yesterday uncovered 150 ecstasy tablets, worth $2000"

$2000 / 150 tablets = ~$13.35 per tablet, considerably cheaper than what most would price ecstasy at in Australia - So where's the effectiveness in the disruption to drug supply the 'drug war' seeks? It seems that these drugs are cheaper than ever.

I'll end it here before I write a novel.

Thoughts?

THC to protect from risks associated with Ecstasy? Ecstasy to cure cancer?

Well a few days ago I got my e-newsletter (I love technology) from Erowid.org that had a particular article in it that caught my interest even more than everything else in it...Is THC Neuroprotective Against MDMA Toxicity? Wow, I thought THC/cannabis does EVERYTHING! It's still early days into the research but it looks promising, that's right...a harm minimization strategy for those ever increasing ecstasy users might be to be sure to blaze up :P


To read more visit: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_article5.shtml and if you like the site please consider donating, they are a very important site who do brilliant work.

It was a few days after gloating more good values of cannabis that ANOTHER illicit substance, MDMA/'ecstasy' shows cancer destroying properties...and this in the mainstream media :O

"Researchers from Birmingham University claimed the designer drug, also known as MDMA, could be used to treat leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma after making it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth.

Ecstasy was already known to be effective against more than half of white blood cell cancers, but previously the large dose required to treat a tumour would also have killed the patient"

- Source

The only thing that concerns me is that the Australian "Ecstasy. Face Facts" ad campaign that the Government ran in a targeted and stereotypical way (i.e. ads in music magazines) was TOO EFFECTIVE. I mean what if someone has a cancer curable by a disco biscuit but won't have it because he knows battery acid, bleach and a dirty toilet are involved? Refer to picture below

Also note the graphical design work on the advertisement, I like how it's what I'd come to expect from governments terrible delivery of often misguided messages which have never proven themselves to be effective.