Energy Drinks: The New Gateway Drug?

I remember the days when the D.A.R.E officer would come into my school and warn about the dangers of smoking and drinking as they were the gateway drugs to hard illegal ones.

It now appears that certain people are pushing to add energy drinks to the list.

According to the LA Times, Roland Griffiths from John Hopkins University, has recently published a paper outlining the dangers of energy drink consumption. He also had 97 addiction experts sign the paper and then he sent it to the US Food and Drug Administration calling for federal regulation of energy drinks.

He believes that energy drinks should be considered gateway drugs and that kids who consume them will be more likely to use illegal drugs in the future.

He refers to a study performed last March (which we wrote about here on energy fiend) that claimed  college students who drank energy drinks were more likely to engage in risky behavior.

I think more research is needed before this kind of assumption can be made about energy drinks. The original study only looked at 795 students which isn’t large enough to draw conclusions about the dangers of energy drinks.

Also, I think people who are inclined to have an addictive inclination tend to go overboard on everything like caffeine, alcohol, and eventually perhaps harder drugs, but energy drinks aren’t the cause of this behavior. It may seem that teens abusing energy drinks is better than teenage alcohol abuse, but too much consumption of energy drinks, categorized as a stimulant, can still have adverse consequences on one’s health.

What do you think? Do you think energy drinks should be considered a gateway drug and restricted by the government?

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