Caffeine and Alcohol
Recently, Maryland decided to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine.
They call the drinks dangerous, but are they really any worse than plain alcohol, which is -- lest we forget -- poison?
What do you think of this decision? Where do you stand on the idea that government should take steps to make sure we are kept safe from issues such as this one?
Then there is caffeine. For some people, they feel fine, but for others, like me, there is a very strong sensitivity to it.
Separately, they are managable ingredients to most, but together it can put your body over the edge with the overload of chemicals since they have different uses. It has already been established that these drinks are very dangerous for people. So it stands to reason that this is a reasonable ban.
Elazarn - Thanks for agreeing, but I think that sometimes our government goes a little too far on bans, rules and so forth. We have much waste in our government. As far as other unhealthy choices that we make in our life, well, we need to be accountable for our own actions. And big business is looking out for number 1 and will push through whatever people will buy. If consumers raise their consciousness and stop buying the truly harmful products, business would be forced to stop selling 'it'. Otherwise, bans? To what avail? People will find a way to get it anyhow. Remember prohibition?
We had an incident in our local area where a teenager crashed her SUV headlong into a family van. The four front passangers in the van died, leaving two little children in the third row back seat with minor injuries. The teenager herself died, along with four of her friends, one friend survived and is paralysied from the neck down for life.
The police report said the 18 year old girl was probably driving at speeds in excess of 120 mph when the crash ocured.
That's just one example of how terribly dangerous it is to mix high amounts of caffeine and alchohol. Luckily we haven't had any more of these accidental deaths, but obviously they have very severe consequences and should be banned from all states.
Now, if you want to mix caffeine and alchohol together, that's your business and I believe you do have the right to do whatever you want in the comfort of your own home as long as your not endangering other people.
Outlawing substances such as heroine, which can clearly cause a great deal of harm to anyone without a sufficient level of will power, is probably a good thing, since it's potentcy of addiction is rumoured to be enormous.
But heading down that road with caffiene an alcohol isn't so clean cut. Alcohol as you mention is already incredibly dangerous, and mixing with it with caffiene is probably not going to help, but is it really doing that much more harm?
I think in this case, the responsibility should be left with the consumer, because it's not (in my opinion) causing a great threat.
Ultimately though, I think it's essentially a case of how much faith you put in the population, and if you can really do more good than harm by outlawing a substance, then it's probably the right decision. Taking the loss of freedom for those who can act responsibly as a huge drawback.