Health Canada Studies Limiting Energy Drink Access

Well, we guess it's back to straight vodka for us.

The government wants to take away your Red Bull. Well, not quite, but according to reports unearthed by Postmedia News, a Health Canada panel has recommended that energy drinks should only be sold in pharmacies to people over the age of 18. As it stands, energy drinks, like Red Bull, Monster, Redrain, Rockstar, and a bunch of other caffeinated beverages that suddenly taste amazing when mixed with vodka or jagermeister, are sold as "natural health products" in Canada, but the panel thought they should drop the term "energy drinks" and be listed as "stimulant drug-containing drinks." (That just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) If Health Canada were to adopt the recommendations, it would make Canada just about the toughest jurisdiction in the world for the sale and consumption of the beverages, of which about seven million are sold each month. While we're all for limiting energy drink consumption to those over the age of 18 (people have died from consuming too many of them), we don't see why they just can't be sold along the same lines as cigarettes.