(Washington, DC) - Joined by 29 other attorneys general nationwide, Attorney General Linda Singer today urged the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to prohibit alcohol manufacturers from making misleading health-related statements when advertising alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine and other stimulants.
In a letter to TTB Administrator John Manfreda, Singer and her colleagues wrote that alcoholic energy drinks mimic the nonalcoholic energy beverages very popular with youth and warned that the alcoholic energy drinks pose serious health and safety risks. According to medical researchers and public health professionals, stimulants in alcoholic energy drinks may cause an intoxicated person to falsely believe that he or she can continue to drink and function normally.
Aggressive marketing campaigns claim these alcoholic energy beverages increase a person’s stamina or can have an energizing effect. For instance, BudExtra has an advertising slogan, "You can sleep when you’re thirty" and makes claims of renewed strength through the addition of guarana. However, the ads do not mention the potentially severe, adverse consequences of mixing caffeine or other stimulants and alcohol, the attorneys general said.
"Nonalcoholic energy drinks containing high levels of caffeine constitute a rapidly growing segment of the beverage market. These beverages are particularly popular with teens and young adults," the attorneys general wrote.
The letter continued, "Unfortunately, alcoholic beverage manufacturers have taken advantage of the youth appeal of these drinks by engaging in aggressive marketing campaigns for pre-mixed alcoholic energy drinks. These campaigns claim that such beverages increase a person’s stamina or energy level. However, they do not mention the potentially severe, adverse consequences of mixing caffeine or other stimulants and alcohol."
As TTB has recognized in one of its own publications, "Alcohol is the nation’s number one drug problem among youth, and it is involved in teen automobile crashes, homicides and suicides, the three leading causes of teen death." The US Surgeon General recently reported that approximately 5,000 people under the age of 21 die each year from alcohol-related injuries. Alcohol also contributes to risky sexual behavior, poor school performance and other psychological and sociological dysfunctions among youth.
The attorneys general also requested a TTB investigation into the makeup of alcoholic energy drinks and other flavored malt beverages to determine whether, based on the percentage of distilled spirits contained in the drinks, they are properly classified as malt beverages under federal law. The malt beverage classification, in many states, enables cheaper and broader sale of these drinks, making them more readily available to young people than distilled spirits. Click on the link below to get more information: