The real cocaine drink and endorsed by the Pope!
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Posted on 09/29/2006 11:35:32 AM PDT by BansheeBill
Cocaine — the new party drink
By Jean Porrazzo, Enterprise staff writer
There is a new “cocaine” out there and it's not an illegal white powder.
It's a drink that contains nearly three times the caffeine as a cup of coffee, is supposed to have a “throat-numbing” ingredient and is billed by its maker as a “legal alternative” to the unlawful drug that carries the same name.
Called “Cocaine,” the beverage is the latest party drink among young adults in California, New York City and Australia. So far, the drink is not sold at local stores but it could soon arrive in southeastern Massachusetts once it goes on sale at its maker's Web site.
Local officials are not pleased.
“It's another attempt to exploit the use of illegal drugs,” West Bridgewater selectmen Chairman Matthew Albanese said.
“It's a subliminal message that trying the actual drug is cool as well — and let's face it, all kids want to be cool.”
An 8.4 ounce can of “Cocaine” contains 280 milligrams of caffeine. An average 5-ounce cup of coffee has at least 106 milligrams of caffeine, according to the U.S. Department of Nutritional Services.
Its taste has been compared to cherry-flavored Jolly Rancher hard candy.
The West Bridgewater selectmen want to ban the product from their town. The board has sent a letter warning all liquor license holders that “any use of a new 'energy' drink called 'Cocaine' will not be tolerated” and any use “would be deemed a violation by the board.”
Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, which makes the drink, boasts about its “throat-numbing” effect and says “Cocaine” is 350 percent stronger than the popular “Red Bull” energy drink.
According to Redux's Web site, www.drinkcocaine.com, the side effects associated with the drink include “extreme amounts of energy,” and the “caffeine effects last three to four hours.”
“Cocaine — Instant Rush. NO Crash!” says one promo.
Late Sunday, a Redux company official posted a letter on the site saying it had received 6,738,165 hits in one week after the new drink was announced.
But local officials, anti-drug advocates and health care providers are outraged by the product's name, its claims and the potential dangers.
“We spend millions of dollars every year educating our kids against the dangers of drugs and here's a company that's going to profit from the sale of this dangerous product,” Albanese said. “This company needs to show some level of corporate responsibility.”
None of a half-dozen students interviewed outside Brockton High School Wednesday had heard of the “Cocaine” drink.
Asked his opinion, Jameson Bernadotte, 18 of Brockton, said “they're using the name 'Cocaine' to attract young people. It's weird, it's promoting drugs.”
“I think they're trying to get people to buy it, especially young people,” said Jamie Foster, 15, of Brockton. “It's not a good idea.”
Foster and Bernadotte said they don't like so-called “energy” drinks. But 15-year-old Christopher Little, another student, said he has tried “Red Bull” and would try the drink “Cocaine.”
Meanwhile, the West Bridgewater Board of Health is looking into regulations to ban the drink at convenience stores and supermarkets, Albanese said.
“The Board of Health has jurisdiction of retail sales at convenience stores and supermarkets,” Albanese said.
Raynham school resource officer Louis F. Pacheco's sixth-graders found out about the energy drink on the Internet before he did.
“It's making light of the actual drug and now, when a kid is offered the drug, they'll think it's less dangerous,” he said.
Pacheco said he doesn't plan on addressing the drink in his class unless it is brought up by a student.
“The marketing campaign is unconscionable,” Plymouth psychologist Mark Dunay said. “They're romanticizing the use of a substance that will lead ignorant, uninformed kids into the assumption that the hard drug cocaine is acceptable. There's no logic, but kids aren't logical.”
To make matters worse, some young people are mixing the drink “Cocaine” with alcohol or using it with other drugs that normally would make them tired, experts and officials said.
“It acts in a way that they don't go to sleep, so they keep drugging and drinking,” Albanese said.
Dr. Melissa Joy Tracy, a cardiologist at Brockton Hospital, had heard about the drink.
She has treated a number of patients who drink energy drinks and suffer high blood pressure, racing of the heart and arrhythmia. The combination of alcohol or drugs with energy drinks is “a horrible combustible combination,” she said.
“Depending on the age group, these people could have a heart attack or a stroke,” she said.
Posted for informational and discussion use only.
They should've called it "Ritalin". Parents would be demanding that the schools buy it to give to all the students.
Somehow I don't seem to remember all this hand-wringing over a perfume being named "Opium".
I had a can of Red Bull once, I thought it was nasty. Perhaps Vodka would have helped
An average 5-ounce cup of coffee has at least 106 milligrams of caffeine…
A 5-ounce cup of coffee? Isn’t that just a bit tiny? I just checked my coffee cup, and it holds 12 ounces. Is the 5 ounce cup some kind of dainty New England or California New Age thing?
Three 12 ounce cups every morning.
Great. Let me manufacture a cola from sudafed and battery acid and call it "Meth". It will be in 7-11s everywhere. < /sarc >
Assuming that isn't also a joke: If you type </sarcasm> a Web browser will interpret it as a tag and not display it. To display </sarcasm> like I just did (twice now) you must type </sarcasm>.
The same sort of statistics that support marijuana being a "gateway drug" also support the same designation for alcohol and tobacco. (Don't know how anyone would arrive at exactly the conclusion you cite, though.)
Very simple: The guy just had to think, "I don't like tobacco, alcohol, or caffeine, but I like my pot. I think I'll write and article saying what I don't like is a gateway drug and what I do like isn't."
Me, I don't like tobacco or pot and I drink only occasionally, but if they want my caffeine, they'll have to pry the cola out of my dead, cold, frosty, refreshing hands.
That much caffeine can be heart-dangerous to a much larger percentage of individuals than Red Bull and other such "energy" drinks. I would also be concerned as to the potential long term effects of their oral anesthetic coupled with such a large amount of caffeine. When the Ortho Evra patch came on the market I warned in this space that it would be very bad news. I am saying now, please avoid this drink.
Self-correction: should read "coupled with such a large amount of caffeine and alcohol" since "Cocaine" is intended for mixing with vodka.
Yea, thanks, i'll have to remember that for the future.
“cocaine” & “throat-numbing”
AMEN! If these guys truly appreciated freedom, they'd be working in different jobs.
PUENTE PIEDRA, Peru - Amid clanging machinery and the whiffs of steam on the factory floor, a new company is producing a soft drink that its creators pledge will transform this Andean country, if successful.
That is a big if, because while KDrink is filled with vitamins, calcium and proteins that attract health-conscious consumers, its most important ingredient is coca, the much-maligned green leaf used to make cocaine. That same leaf will provide the drink's kick.
But that has not stopped the Peruvian maker, Kokka Royal Food & Drink, from filling 200,000 of the 10-ounce bottles since operations began in February. Nor has it kept Kokka Royal's lawyers from negotiating with health authorities in Europe to secure import permits, which KDrink's makers say would convert an oddity of a concoction into a real competitor for the world's big-name beverages.
"You don't get this from Gatorade," said Anselm Pi Rambla, the Spanish investor who has spearheaded the project. "It does not give you a high like crack cocaine. But it does give you energy you can use."
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