I can’t handle coffee, and can barely stop my hands from shaking after a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi. I am the lone iceberg drifting out to sea, while the off-brown colors of Starbucks and high-pitched neons of energy drinks surge through corporate America, high school locker rooms, and bohemian agoras. While caffeine through coffee is regulated by the FDA, caffeinated alcoholic beverages are not. And that type of caffeine is now under serious scrutiny for its marriage to alcoholic drinks, like the omnipotent vodka/Red Bull, the Flinstone-vitamin taste of Sparks, and the ultra-disgusting, (I know this because I had to try it) premixed Jim Beam Cola. The FDA is asking nearly 30 manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages to provide scientific evidence that their products are safe within 30 days. The ramifications of this could effect binge drinking, especially at the collegiate level, where such drinks are used to stay up later, thus consuming more alcohol.

Recent research from the Wake Forest School of Medicine contends that collegians who drink caffeinated alcoholic beverages are at a tremendously higher risk for alcohol-related injuries and negative consequences than students who do not fuse alcohol and caffeine. Speaking on the hindering effects to the body and judgment these drinks have, researcher Mary Claire O’Brien stated, “Students whose motor skills, visual reaction times, and judgment are impaired by alcohol may not perceive that they are intoxicated as readily when they’re also ingesting a stimulant,” said O’Brien. “Only the symptoms of drunkenness are reduced – but not the drunkenness. They can’t tell if they’re drunk; they can’t tell if someone else is drunk. So they get hurt, or they hurt someone else.”

What I found particularly useful in this study was that it delved deeper into the identity of who is performing this risk behavior. The report showed that college students who were male, white, intramural athletes, Greek society members or pledges, or older were significantly more likely to consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks. Using this information, social change scientists and public health engineers can orchestrate an intervention and prevention campaign specifically targeting the aforementioned young adults. More research, I believe, would be needed to grasp the specific cultural capital of the Greek system at each school to run successful campaigns, but O’Brien’s research is of much value to us in terms of segmenting the audience to find those most at risk for conducting a risk behavior.

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