Troubled Teens Resources

It is very amazing to see alcoholic beverage manufacturers concocting an intoxicant using a variation of the same recipe junkies and addicts have been killing themselves with for years.

One of the street names for it is “speedballing”. It involves simultaneously shooting up a downer in one arm and an upper in the other, the collision of opposing chemicals designed to give the addict some bang for his buck. It is just another example of the insidious ingenuity that an addict will employ while seeking that elusive buzz, the perfect nirvana moment.

Now a legal and less toxic form of “speedballing”is being marketed to adults by a variety of manufacturers- and angry critics say it is being aimed also at teens - in the form of high energy alcoholic beverages.To top it off Anheuser Bush has packaged it’s Spykes in easy to conceal “cutsey” bottles that can only be attractive to teens.

“…there is soaring demand for caffeine-fueled energy drinks, which are especially popular among teens. And as it happens, energy drinks have become enormously popular as mixers with alcohol on the bar scene.

“The energy drink market is taking off, with Red Bull as the lead,” said James Mosher, who works on alcohol policy at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. “A big part of the market is using energy drinks as a mixer with booze with the idea that the caffeine will keep you partying all night.”
(Source)

For counties and schools and parents who are invested heavily in teen crisis intervention programs, the battle is made all the more difficult when indifferent corporations continue to value profit over plain common sense.