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Put a shot of caffeine into sweetly flavored energy drink with 12% alcohol in it, and you have a recipe for intoxication or worse. So the federal government has ordered changes, setting the stage for the next fight over the sales and regulation of these beverages.
The FDA and FTC actions announced on Nov. 17 came more than three years after this new kind of alcoholic beverage was first instroduced, recalls Michael Scippa of the Marin Institute.
The second round in the Marin Institute's campaign to restrict or ban alcoholic energy drinks was longer and harder than the first, adds Michelle Simon, because their opponents this time had more to lose.
One reason the Institute has focused so strongly on these beverages, says Simon, is because they have intensified the toxic aspect of the intoxication they induce.
