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DrugScreening.org


 
New Alcoholic Energy Drinks, Hangover 'Cures' Coming to Market
March 4, 2008

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News Summary

The beverage industry showed off a variety of new alcoholic energy drinks and products designed to prevent hangovers and other ill effects of alcohol overconsumption during a recent Las Vegas trade show, MarketWatch reported Feb. 28.

Anheuser-Busch, SABMiller and Fortune Brands were among the exhibitors at the Nightclub & Bar Show, which featured previews of a number of new products intended to help young drinkers stay up and drink all night without being incapacitated the next day.

Purple Beverage Co., for example, was showing off its signature "Purple," a mix of seven fruit juices rich in antioxidants. Purple is marketed as a mixer with the slogan "Detox as your tox," and company CEO Ted Farnsworth says mixing the drink with alcohol improves the drink's antioxidant power.

"You drink (Purple) and vodka until you can't walk and if you have a hangover, I will buy it back from you -- including the vodka," said Farnsworth.

Constellation Brands' Wide Eye is a line of 60-proof schnapps liqueurs in flavors like Cherry Bomb and Mango Chill that contains 55 milligrams of caffeine, about the same as a can of Mountain Dew. Wingard USA is selling VS vodka, which contains caffeine and taurine, both common ingredients in energy drinks. Rum and tequila versions also are coming, company officials said.

Natural Patches USA, another product being marketed at the show, is a transdermal vitamin B1 patch that the maker says will prevent hangovers. "You put one on before you start drinking and it maintains 20 percent to 30 percent hydration," said founding partner Duane Updike.

Also on the way: frozen Frost Shots from a Colombian liquor firm, FlipShotz -- a long wooden paddle designed to let multiple drinkers do shots of liquor simultaneously -- sparkling vodka, and a motorized ice chest that can travel at up to 13 miles per hour.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by DS on 12 Mar 08 02:11 PM EDT
Just watch "Cops" on TV when they are dealing with the bombed/drunk/high kids on spring break. The kids don't know when to stop drinking. These products won't help.

Posted by Karyn L. on 12 Mar 08 01:26 AM EDT
We can't stop free enterprise ~ it's one of the great freedoms we enjoy in this country. Thanks to free enterprise I am opening a drug and alcohol treatment facility that will be based on a holistic, spiritual premise. In that program I will also be conducting serious research with the permission of my clients. I intend on taking that research to our lawmakers to demand that it be illegal to advertise ALL addictive substances, including these hangover cures and prescription medications. There is no more powerful influence over society than advertising. We can't stop free enterprise but we can ban together to stop the media from throwing danger into the faces of our vulnerable society. If it is in your power to compile statistics that can be used to help me with this please do so and get those research facts to our lawmakers. Okay, back down off my soapbox.

Posted by Al on 10 Mar 08 12:42 PM EDT
I think a more important question that never seems to get asked is, "Why do kids--and adults for that matter--want so badly to be in an altered state of consciousness?"

Posted by John Keppler on 10 Mar 08 10:41 AM EDT
Most of these "hangover cures" are very much a scam; adding caffeine will only serve to make you a mildly more wide awake and possibly nervous drunk. Antioxidants and taurine both ridiculous. Vitamin B1 good to take if your are an end stage alcoholic, defieicent in B1 and want to avoid Wernicke Korsakoff syndrome from micro hemmorhages in your brain matter but not much use for for hangovers. Hangovers are result of multiple factors, the overdose of alcohol causing toxicity to neurons in one's brain, the cogeners present in many "hard" alcohol preparations that are toxic, and sulfites present in many red wines, and last but not least DEHYDRATION and hypoglycemia. All thse factors can lead to that most wonderful of experiences - the hangover. Alcohol when used in excess is arguably the most dangerous of all the abuseable and addictive substances to which we all have access. It is toxic to virtually every cell and organ system in the old human bod. It is highly doubtful that the comapanies promoting these snake oil preparation are doing it with our well being in mind and it is even more dubious that they have stumbled upon some mixture of vitamins and amino acids that are going to protect one from hanovers much less the myriad toxic effects of the alcohol molecule upon our cells John MD

Posted by Young on 10 Mar 08 10:39 AM EDT
The dexterity and persistence of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Illegal drugs manufacturers/dealers in pursuit of excellence in the destruction of mankind via their products is amazing. And they are able to do this because the system and society allows them. If they have the right(demo-crazy) we also have the right to stop our hitherto cosmetic opposition, and all concerned americans rise up as one and picket every identified manufacturer/dealer for days or even months until they and their government stooges put a stop to this brazen and callous destruction of our youth and future.

Posted by Karol on 10 Mar 08 10:12 AM EDT
Obviously Jay (above) does not have children and lives under a mushroom! You can talk to your children until you are blue in the face but the ads and peer pressure speak volumes more and louder!! All of the advertising hype that says this new stuff is so cool, safe, and "everyone is doing it" type message overrides anything a responsible parent can say to their children come Friday night! If all the advertising is supposedly NOT directed at teens and young adults, why do they all look so young on the ads?? It is subtle peer pressure! We, as the responsible adults, have to take a stand and tell the companies that we will not let them deliver this directly to our children!

Posted by Jay on 10 Mar 08 08:36 AM EDT
Don't blame the company, blame it on bad parenting.. Why don't you people take responsibility and teach your children drinking is not the answer.. typical humans blaming someone else instead of taking the responsibility themselves...

Posted by Dee on 05 Mar 08 05:58 PM EST
Do we wait until people die of overdose and the lawsuits start before our leaders wake up? Alcohol poisoning is real. The behavior covered-up by a stimulant allows a sick person to drink more. Sick society we live in. Money is the Diety.

Posted by Debbie Baker on 05 Mar 08 04:16 PM EST
Do none of these companies feel any social responsibility for what their products are doing to our youth and to our societies? What will it take to get through to them? This, to me, shows a total lack of integrity.

Posted by Arnie Magy on 05 Mar 08 11:46 AM EST
I weep for the children of our society. Has the dollar become a god so demanding that we will sacrifice them in the flames of Baal? We will be favored with a world of wide awake drunks, free radical reduced alcoholics and speedier, less annoying delivery of liquid death to the doorstep, table and bar. But at least we will do it together--thank you to the makers of FlipShotz.

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