Did energy drinks kill Mick Clarke? Grieving mum calls for ban

[poledriver]

Did energy drinks kill Mick Clarke? Grieving mum calls for ban

AT 35 years old, Mick Clarke seemed like he had his whole life ahead of him.
Even though he kept unusual hours thanks to his job, the Perth-based truck driver lived an active life, running most days and consuming a reasonable diet.
But there was one major shortcoming in Mick’s seemingly healthy lifestyle — he was drinking about four energy drinks a day. And when he died suddenly on January 30 this year, that was found to be the cause.
The coroner said it was caffeine toxicity that claimed his life.

“He used to buy a four-pack (of energy drink), so I’d say he was drinking at least four a day, but he was also coming home and drinking coffee as well,” Mick’s mother, Shani Clarke, told the ABC.
“It was only a couple of weeks prior ... he was out the front cleaning his truck out, and he had all these cans of Mother that he went to throw in the bin and I said to him then, ‘I hope you’re not drinking all of them in one go because they can kill you’.”

Mick didn’t realise energy drinks could be dangerous — most people don’t — but his death, and a campaign led by his mother to raise awareness about caffeine toxicity caused by energy drinks, is turning heads.
Shani Clarke has started a petition to ban the sale of energy drinks to people under 18, and her Facebook group Caffeine Toxicity Death Awareness is already changing lives.
Shocked by what happened to Mick, followers on the Facebook group have pledged to kick their energy drink-guzzling habits and shared their own horror stories.
But experts aren’t so shocked.

Professor Chris Semsarias has campaigned for the regulation of energy drinks for years, and has compared the public health issue to that of smoking 30 years ago.
“It took a while before we worked out all the adverse medical effects, but the potential magnitude of this problem is not dissimilar and should be acted on,” he told news.com.au.

Cont -

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...um-calls-for-ban/story-fneuzlbd-1227047494115

 

[neversickanymore]

Considering i consume more cafine than this, combined with significant amounts of nicotine.. after years of heavy abuse.. combined with all the other significant factors.. combined with my current age.. combined with my genetic predisposition.. I would guess that the energy drinks may have played a part, but this person likely had health flaw.. sorry for the people who loved them loss, but IMO they did not have a chance.

 

[slimvictor]

Sad when young, seemingly healthy people die.
But is banning something really the solution? It hasn't worked very well in the past...

And, if caffeine is the culprit, why don't we call for a ban on coffee and tea and chocolate as well as energy drinks?
(Answer: because the war on drugs would lose its support. No relation to safety or protecting people.)

 

[Crankinit]

I don't think a ban is in order, but some regulation would be more than reasonable in my opinion. The size of some of those cans and the sheer quantity of caffeine (not to mention the sugar and other unhealthy ingredients) in them in absurd. We tend to write it off as a kiddy drug, but it's easy to slip into a big habit of drinking 500mg + a day and becoming physically dependent (and the w/d's, while they aren't Trainspotting stuff, aren't exactly a fun time either).

 

[slimvictor]

^ I agree that there should be education and regulation, and that caffeine wds are nasty!

 

[spacejunk]

Shit yeah caffeine withdrawals are nasty!
If I don't have my morning coffee (I just drink one caffeinated beverage per day) I get a throbbing headache, the shakes and will possibly vomit.
Once these symptoms start manifesting, it's generally too late to have my coffee fix - they don't seem to be magically alleviated by a late caffeine dose.
In this sense it's as addictive as anything I've ever consumed with any regularity - except social acceptance, cost and availability means that I'm still addicted to caffeine, whereas I've left a lot of other "hard" drugs behind.
It's a drug I treat with respect - if I consume it too late in the day, there's little chance I'll sleep that night, whereas I've known people to drink coffee right before going to bed. I could never do that, even though I've drunk coffee daily for years, and have had periods of heavy use of amphetamine and other CNS stimulants.
Its effects seem to vary greatly from one individual to another - but I have only ever broken my daily coffee grind (sorry - bad pun) when I've been laid up with a heavy dose of the flu or something, and gone days or weeks without starting my day with a cuppa.
...but I keep going back to the stuff!

Funny, when western culture first encountered coffee, it was treated as a degenerate and subversive thing to consume - much like the bulk of psychoactive drugs are nowadays.

 

[ro4eva]

The whole system needs a complete overhaul.

The public needs proper, unbiased education, and not fascist propaganda, lest they become careless/reckless with the legal psychotropic drugs.

The War on Drugs needs to end - completely. Law enforcement should be ordered to go solve actual crimes, and to keep away for good, or risk having their careers ruined (and possibly thrown in the slammer).

Alcoholic beverages, tobacco/nicotine products, and even caffeine should be held to the same standards as the other mind altering substances commonly in demand. If John Doe can get totally smashed without fear of prosecution, then Mary Jane should also be able to smoke her weed without fear of prosecution. And there is no valid argument for treating the latter as a criminal solely because of the weed - none whatsoever.

My condolences to the grieving mother, but further restrictions and/or bans will never work. Ironically, it usually ends up doing more damage than before.

 

[spacejunk]

^ wise words as always. The will is there, we just need the courage as a society to make change based on reason and compassion, rather than greed and corruption.
I mean, look at this case - and look at the case of the family losing their home because the son was charged with possession with intent to supply; two presumably avoidable tragedies (it's hard to know in this case if factors other than caffeine toxicity led to this man's death) - that are completely different yet share the same basic cause - prohibition.
Whether you are robbed of your parents' home for selling a product people want to buy - or lose your life due to complications of excessive caffeine consumption, both are a result of the current day hypocritical paradigm that exists as far as "mind altering substances" are concerned.
Prohibition causes so many more problems than it solves.
About the only winners are black marketeers and law enforcement agencies that act as repo men as if it is part of their duty in protecting society.
Once we find a productive use for police, I don't see what is holding us back.
Perhaps they could be trained to...I don't know - fight real crime?
Or maybe they could become a new form of educator - one that tries to ensure we never engage in such ghastly social experiments again; and that if we do, we must always have an exit plan for when the whole thing ends up as disastrous as drug prohibition has become across the globe.

 

[Crankinit]

Funny, when western culture first encountered coffee, it was treated as a degenerate and subversive thing to consume - much like the bulk of psychoactive drugs are nowadays.

And for the same reasons of political and ideological enforcement - because the coffee houses where it was consumed became outposts of the trading of new ideas and of equality between the classes, which challenged the present social order.

 

[421]

The petition is to ban them from under-18's not everyone. I don't know how to feel about it.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

The petition is to ban them from under-18's not everyone. I don't know how to feel about it.

I would say 16 would be a more adequate age.
I'm glad caffeine tends to have a terrible effect on me, my usage has cut back considerably.
Instead of making me alert it usually just makes me twitchy and slightly dysphoric.
I can't think or concentrate and I get bad headaches and stomach pain when I use it.

 

[spacejunk]

I think if energy drinks are to regulated, it should be on the basis of how they are marketed, packaged, advertised and where they are sold.
If an age restriction were to be put in place for so-called energy drinks - where would that lead?
Would other products containing caffeine (or similar stimulants) not also have to be age restricted?
Coffee? Coca-cola? Chocolate?
These products can be enjoyed by a large cross-section of the community (young and old) responsibly and relatively safely.
Of course, like many pleasurable things, caffeinated beverages can also be consumed excessively, causing health problems; especially in those already prone to certain kinds of illness.

Part of the problem as I see it, is the image of 'energy drinks' as legal drugs.
The product names, branding, advertising, can/bottle design and descriptions actively and deliberately promote them as some sort of safe, legal way to get a 'buzz' or a rush or 'give you wings' or whatever.
These illusions to more powerful psychoactive drugs encourage their reckless consumption - as the best "effects" a consumer is likely to get from an energy drink is a sugar rush and state of slightly heightened wakefulness (at best).

Some consumers, seeing these quasi-drugs as "kids' stuff" - basically soda pop promoted with illusions of wild party times, macho stamina or amphetamine-like alertness - will be disappointed by the ad spiel, and consume excessive amounts in an effort to reach the 'high' (or whatever) that never comes. Others - like the subject of the article, by the sounds of it - may drink large amounts regularly in order to compensate for lack of sleep or energy. This is problematic due to the toxicity and aforementioned addictive properties of caffeine (and sugar, to some extent).
There are plenty of ways these drinks can be consumed dangerously - but so many of these can be potentially prevented by changing the image of the drink itself.

Do we have the same problems with coffee? Perhaps, but not as widely publicised; I'm not sure that I've heard even anecdotal reports of fatalities due to coffee.
But surely if it is possible for coffee to have similar health consequences as energy drinks - but coffee culture; the factors influencing where, how and why it is consumed, how it is marketed and understood by those who drink it - is very different to energy drinks.

If 'energy drinks' do serve a purpose (beyond being another addictive sugar water sold by big companies to fill fridges in various stores and vending machines across the world), perhaps it is worth looking at that purpose - and stripping away all the bullshit.

If, for example, energy drinks were sold in a medicine bottle in pharmacies (like OTC sleep meds, painkillers or cough syrup) perhaps they would lose some of their flashy youth-baiting glamour of the bright cans, the desirability hyped up by their advertising and promotional allure.
If 'pharmacy-only' is a bit over the top, then perhaps regulating the size of servings/bottles/cans (which I believe is already the case in many places), the allowable caffeine and/or sugar content.
Of perhaps simply insisting that energy drinks be sold in plain, colourless containers - and refrain from advertising in the manner in which they are (eluding to excitement, increased performance, etc).

If there is a wider health problem caused by energy drinks - there may be many ways to tackle it. I'm not advocating any of these suggestions necessarily - but just throwing out some other options of regulations that may get closer to the cause of the problem; a general lack of knowledge about the reality of consuming large amounts of caffeine and sugar.

Stripped of the slick way these drinks are marketed - they're rather mediocre 'drugs', just as they are not refreshing beverages - yet they remain popular items, especially among young people.

Rather than using regulations to ban young people from buying them (because clearly that hasn't exactly succeeded - for alcohol, cigarettes, prescription painkillers or all manner of illicit drugs) - lifting the shiny image off these products, and with it the unrealistic side of their appeal.
Sold as a practical product promoting wakefulness and concentration - without the advertising buzz of "rockstar" or "monster" or whatever they're selling it as this week - may lift the veil of bullshit off these products for consumers.
Then again, people seem to love to buy into the advertising hype, so who knows?

Perhaps if more effective stimulants werent illegal, people wouldn't drink fatally toxic amounts of caffeine. With a bit of education and less glamorisation of psychoactive drugs (which this seems to be tied in with) I would like to imagine such things wouldn't happen.

Wishful thinking perhaps. Maybe the government should ban caffeine, sugar and food colouring, and we could all live on an organic macrobiotic diet.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Certainly what makes most so called energy drinks more "dangerous" and affect people more strongly than mere caffeine is the oft long list of other active ingredients. But I'm with ro. If only...

NSFW:

 

[421]

Certainly what makes most so called energy drinks more "dangerous" and affect people more strongly than mere caffeine is the oft long list of other active ingredients. But I'm with ro. If only...

Absolutely. Caffeine and sugar are only part of the picture. Energy drinks are highly engineered products that have a synergistic mix of various ingredients like taurine, b-vitamins, flavorings etc. Based on how bad some energy drinks taste the flavorings are clearly added because of their psychoactive effects.