Michigan law would ban some from buying energy drinks

Ionia County, Mich. (WZZM) - An Ionia County lawmaker wants to limit who can buy energy drinks. State Representative Brian Calley of the 87th district is introducing legislation that would ban stores from selling the drinks to children.

"Well it came from a constituent that contacted me and was just concerned about a situation in her own family," said Calley. "A child had bought several of these drinks with high concentrations of caffeine and several other stimulants and it caused some health problems for the child."

Calley says energy drinks are the fastest growing segment in the beverage market and kids are fast becoming the best customers.

"The statistic I saw was about 130 percent growth over the last year or two," he said. "The energy drinks themselves typically have about 80mg of caffeine per 8 ounces, but most of these drinks are much more than 8 ounces, about double that. They also add other stimulants."

Research has shown high amounts of caffeine and stimulants cannot only be addictive, but bad for your health. The Michigan lawmaker wants to make it illegal for kids 16 and younger to buy energy drinks themselves.

"That's a good. That's a good idea. Beer is over 21, why not make caffeine drinks 18 and older," said Theresa Hall the mother of two teens ages 16 and 18. Hall says she's never tried any of the wide variety of energy drinks on the market today, but says her kids have.

"If you have too much it can cause you to have a heart attack or whatever. So, it's not good. And kids think this is good, but they don't know it's going to be bad for them," she said.

Miguel Silva started taking energy drinks when he was 18 years old. Now at age 25, he says he's just about tried them all.

"I've had Monster, Red Bull, they had one that was called Cocaine, but they took it off the market," Silva said. "I really didn't get a kick from Rock Start. Full Throttle really didn't do much for me either."

Silva admits he's done a lot of research on which drinks offer the biggest kick, but never considered the health consequences of drinking so much of it at an early age.

"Most of the time young people don't eat breakfast in the morning so you are always in a slump," said Silva. "After you drink one of those and it gives you a kick for a minute, but then you're in a slump again. At my age now I'm thinking what's going to happen to me by the time I'm 40 you know. I'm always on artificial energy."

Silva agrees some limitations should be put in place to protect kids.

"This is not to ban kids from drinking energy drinks, just from buying them directly," said Calley. "So if their parents were to buy them for them and decide that it's ok then that's the parents' prerogative."

He says if the bill is passed he wouldn't expect enforcement teams to go around and check for violations, but believes most stores would comply with the law.

To read a University of Michigan report on energy drinks, click here.

To read more facts about energy drinks, click here.