Feb 14, 2008 9:06 am US/Eastern
Powerful Potions: CBS4 I-Team Gets Results
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Lawmakers are calling for a federal investigation because of CBS4 I-Team Reporter Laurie Stein's exclusive story on an alcoholic energy drink called "Sparks".
In a hidden camera investigation, Stein showed viewers how easily teens could buy the drinks at South Florida's convenience stores. Many looked like energy drinks or orange sodas, but they're packed with up to seven percent alcohol and loads of caffeine.
When the CBS4 I-Team got the drink tested at a scientific lab, the results were actually 214mg.
Maine's Attorney General G. Steven Rowe, the head of a National Commission on Underage Drinking, requested to use Stein's story to launch a federal investigation into Sparks' caffeine content.
In an exclusive interview, he told CBS4, "One of the things we are going to do because of the story is focus on the high levels of caffeine that you found. So what I am doing is putting a letter together and asking federal attorney generals to sign it and send it to the federal agency who regulates the marketing of these products."
Stein also interviewed Dr. Mary Claire O'Brien who has done groundbreaking research linking alcoholic energy drinks with dangerous consequences. She watched the CBS4 story online from her emergency room at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
Dr. O'Brien said, "It is extremely important for people to understand the danger of mixing alcohol with energy drinks and frankly I was glad that you demonstrated such interest in it."
In a study involving more than four-thousand college students, she found that mixing the stimulant of caffeine and the depressant of alcohol can make users drink longer and feel like they're more sober than they actually are.
According to Dr. O'Brien, "Students who mix alcohol and energy drinks are twice as likely to ride with an intoxicated driver, be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to require medical help as a result of their drinking."
In California, the tax board recently changed the tax rate for alcohol energy drinks from 20-cents per gallon for beer to $3.30 per gallon for distilled spirits. That made the drinks cost more and made them a little more difficult for young people to buy. CBS4 obtained information that one Florida legislator is now thinking of petitioning the Florida tax board for the same kind of change, and it could mean millions in new tax dollars.
As for the Miller Brewing Company, a company spokesperson insists Miller Brewing is doing more to stop underage drinking than many other alcohol companies. Miller Brewing claims it never misleads people about Sparks' caffeine content. But when Stein asked for any proof the drink had less caffeine than what CBS4 found, the company refused to confirm the amount saying that was "proprietary information."
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