Coca-Cola gets its name from two principal ingredients in its original 1800s formula, coca leaf and kola nut – both the source for powerful stimulants, cocaine and caffeine. While Coca-Cola is a true soft drink these days, several of its competitors are nearly as powerful as the original Coke – and the popularity of these drinks poses challenges for substance abuse recovery.
Energy drink makers have recently stepped up efforts to promote their products to mainstream consumers. The web site for the most popular energy drink, Red Bull, calmly touts the benefits of its popular energy drink “to people who want to be mentally and physically active and have a zest for life.” Television commercials for 5 Hour Energy feature somnambulant office workers being instantly revived – “It’s me, just a better, more awake me!” — after a quick drink from the short, brightly colored bottles that distinguish this popular brand.
Yet despite these conservative, straight-laced marketing campaigns, over two thirds of the energy drink industry’s sales come from teens and young adults. For these people, already at the height of their physical and mental prowess, it’s the stimulant qualities of these drinks – the caffeine, the vitamin B, the ginseng – that account for their appeal, which is perhaps most clearly shown in the web site for Monster Energy – “It’s a wicked mega hit that delivers twice the buzz of a regular energy drink. Monster packs a vicious punch but has a smooth flavor you can really pound down. Unleash the Beast!”
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It’s this promise of a quick energy buzz that makes energy drinks such a challenge for people seeking to recover from substance abuse addiction. According to Sober Living By The Sea, http://www.soberliving.com, an addiction treatment center in Newport Beach California, people in the early stages of recovery are at high risk of developing an addiction to energy drinks. “The abuse of these types of substances allows the user to more easily cope with craving by getting a spike of dopamine pleasure in their brain that the substance they used to abuse once provided.” For this reason, many substance abuse clinics ban not only the consumption of energy drinks, but also their possession – the Client Rules for the Spencer Recovery Centers of Laguna Beach California, http://spencerrecovery.com, allow for the confiscation of energy drinks purchased by patients on store walks. These restrictions are found even in half-way houses and sober living communities, which typically do not provide the structured programming of drug rehabilitation clinics – the New Found Life Sober Living House of Delray Beach Florida, http://www.soberliving-delraybeach.com, forbids their residents from possessing or consuming energy drinks.
Energy drinks that contain alcohol are certainly the greatest concern in the substance abuse rehabilitation community. Typically sporting such provocative names as Loko, Moonshot, and Lemon Lime Core Spiked, these drinks can contain more alcohol by volume than malt liquor and the caffeine equivalent of several cups of coffee. This potent combination was of such immense concern that the Food and Drug Administration declared them a public health hazard in November 2010, and ordered their manufacturers to change their formulas.
Alcoholic energy drinks may have all but disappeared from store shelves since the FDA’s warning letter, but traditional, non-alcoholic energy drinks continue to be wildly popular, with projected annual sales of over billion in the United States. The growing presence of these legal yet powerful stimulants can be a dangerous temptation to people recovering from substance abuse, and while rehab centers and other organizations have taken action to mitigate this temptation, only time will tell what effect energy drinks will have on substance abuse recovery programs.