Poland bans sale of energy drinks to under-18s

Nice hearing about something Poland is doing right!

Poland does many things right
- I'm sure it does. The thing is I mostly hear about the things Poland does wrong. That's what trends to break into international news. That's why I worded my comment the way I did.
- ...as long as it doesn't offend the church.
- Poland is doing a lot of things wrong on the judicial side.

Agree 100%. It's just an unhealthy dose of sugar and caffeine, which is hardly regulated.

To be fair, it's the same amount of sugar as most other sodas and had less caffeine than a typical coffee. The real issue is that a lot of their marketing targets a younger audience who probably shouldn't be drinking caffeinated drinks yet.
- I say this as a long term caffeine for the rest of my life addict. Coffee + sugar is a wildly different effect than just coffee. I avoid sugar completely during my coffee hours.
- The most popular energy drinks in Sweden are sugar free but contain 180mg of caffeine, that's two large cups of coffee.
- Energy drinks often contain a bunch of other stuff - e.g. Taurine, which isn't necessarily bad per se, as it eliminates some of the caffeine side effects (jitteriness), but that may arguably make it more addictive.

That's the most reasonable thing i've read today.

eh, fair enough. teenage energy drink addiction has caused me years of insomnia. we already have an age restriction on energy drinks in the UK, though it's 16 not 18

I don't think that's true anymore. The ban wasn't formally finalised and was quietly dropped during the pandemic. The store I work at still sells energy drinks to under 16s. We used to have to check, but they changed it and took the warning off our tills.
ETA: stores can implement their own policies though, if they do wish to age check people buying energy drinks.
- I have no idea what's going on then lol. pretty much every shop I've been to has asked for ID when buying energy drinks
Reading those comments drops your IQ by 5 points. Now calculate the economic impact that will have... You can't because reading this comment drops your IQ by another 5 points :(
- the whole point of banning energy drink sales to minors is that minors are at a higher increase of heart issues because their body can't handle caffeine like adults. but sure, everyone else is the idiot on this one and "the economy" is definitely more important than kids' health

Absolutely a good thing. As someone who drank a lot of energy drinks in high school, it was not worth it.

Sadly, large amounts of caffeine were a way to control my ADHD when I couldn't afford medication. I still usually have an energy drink daily, even though I'm medicated now. At least that's less that what I used to do.
Why? I've consumed caffeine for a long time without any problems...genuinely asking
- imagine if this whole thing was about cigarettes. id imagine people would be questioning why it wasnt age restricted sooner. caffeine and nicotine are practically the same type of addiction, but one of them is legal for almost anybody to get and the other is getting banned more and more
- It’s not only much cheaper to not have a caffeine addiction, but it also I think makes me much more present as I don’t need caffeine in the mornings to function, and I get enough sleep. Just seems better to me.

Idk what y'all think but honestly I'd say these little cans of poison need a warning lable like cigarettes as well

Under 18s?

That's not a very long wait from birth to Monster. Just 18 seconds?

18s is all this monster needs.
The OP meant "under 18-year-olds".

I hope this would also include products like "5 hour energy", which are energy drinks, but in a smaller and even easier to shot down package.

- "excluding products where those substances occur naturally."
  That seems like a dumb exception. It's not like naturally occurring caffeine is somehow better for you. If it's above that limit, then the law should apply to that as well.
Those kind of things aren't really popular outside of America. I only ever see them in America
- Seen them in Thailand. Red Bull was originally in small shot format.cam from there, and it was adapted for other markets.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krating_Daeng

Finaly. This should be done in every country, since they are so unhealthy.

So you have a source on why you believe these are unhealthy?
- They're pure sugar water and caffeine. I drink them but do you honestly think there is a chance they are healthy in any possible way?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Energy#Ingredients caffeine, a lot of it.

Probably not a bad idea in light of the Logan Paul situation

EDIT: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fda-asked-investigate-logan-pauls-energy-drink-prime-caffeine-6-coke-c-rcna93297

- Excuse me, but this is "the situation".
What did he do this time?
- I just looked it up and dear god... Kids will drink it too.

Rare Poland W

This was also implemented in Lithuania around maybe 5 years ago. Some kids would still get it by asking their parents or strangers to buy them, but they definitely got more rare, to the point where at least where I am, you'd more often see a teen with a ciggie rather than a teen with an energy drink.

- Similar thing happened in the US with Four Lokos after a bunch of college kids died but we only banned Four Lokos due to the alcohol and caffeine mix.

Utter bullshit. The world does need more ways to restrict, exclude, and infantilize young people. This should be subverted by every possible means.

I imagine this cuts off right at the voting age? So it only affects people who never had a say in who passed it and can't effectively hold them to account for it?

So are they going to ban coffee too for under 18's as well or pretend that doesn't contain the same/more caffeine than an energy drink?

If it's not the caffiene content thats the issue are they going to ban all soft drinks if you are under 18?

I can't speak much about Europe, but when I was in the beverage industry about 10 years ago, energy drinks often had ADDITIONAL ingredients (supplements) far beyond caffeine.
If you look on the back of those energy drink cans in the US, they don't say Nutrition Facts, they say Supplement Facts. That is important, it tells you how the item is classified and whether it has to follow FDA rules on Foods or FDA rules on Dietary Supplements (like vitamins do).
And if you look at the list of ingredients in many energy drinks (I have a tub of powdered GFuel before me so I'm refreshing my memory using that--it says "Supplement Facts"), you see a lot of ingredients like L-Tyrosine or L-Citrulline Malate which never appear in anything categorized as a food with the "Nutrition Facts" label on it. These fancy designer ingredients are basically newly-developed things that do not yet have a long-term proven track record of safety when eaten regularly on an everyday basis like a food.
A "food" is expected to be eaten regularly, so the standard of safety is higher for ingredients that go in a "food". There's a specific list the FDA has that lists ingredients considered GRAS (generally regarded as safe). New ingredients have to be evaluated by the FDA to determine whether they can be treated as GRAS, or if they have to have additional regulation if a corporation wants to put them in a food, drink, or supplement.
Corporations, unsurprisingly, LOVE to throw all sorts of newly created ingredients in things, for marketing purposes, so they do a lot of shady shit like labeling their product as a dietary supplement--but marketing it as a food so people think it's a food.
Something classified as a "dietary supplement" (as many energy drinks are) is not meant to be eaten regularly as a food item. It's meant to be consumed less frequently to SUPPLEMENT other things you consume or put in your body. However, people often treat energy drinks as a "food", as if they're the same thing as pop or juice, which could potentially be dangerous to your health because the ingredients in them have not yet proven they have a track record of safety when consumed frequently in food-like amounts. (I'm not really talking about caffeine here, I'm talking about all the OTHER stuff they throw in it.)
Whether a drink is classified as a "supplement" or a "food" is important. It is a big thing, because the regulations for what can be put into something that's a "supplement" is looser than what can be labeled as a "food".
I don't know exactly how Europe draws the lines or what the regulatory landscape is there regarding energy drinks, but it sounds like this ban is possibly because Energy Drinks tend to have ingredients that push the boundary on what is safe eaten in large amounts like a food and what might be more harmful like a drug. Europe is generally stricter than America when it comes to food safety.
- The EU is a regulatory hellscape and it's one of the biggest problems the EU has.
It's not caffeine, it's sugar
- Okay then why does Coca Cola get a pass or chocolate or any kind of confectionery or soft drink?
So are they going to ban coffee too
Probably not
You know, that wouldn't bother me, and I'm a big advocate for personal choice and freedom.

Cue the black market for buying energy drinks for minors.

¿Que?
- Whoops lol, fixed.

No more caffeine for you!

Next step: Poland bans tap-water to under-18s

Just because you have a debilitating caffeine addiction, doesn't mean that everyone else does

Sweden also has an age limit on energy drinks, though I’m not sure if it’s 18 or something else.

In Finland its not a legal limit but many stores won't sell them to under 15's
- Not since "the incident"
15, not sure if that's a legal requirement or something stores chose to do
- It's only something stores have chosen to do. There are no laws in place.

If not being able to buy energy drinks as a kid pushes you to extremism, you were already destined for that to begin with.

in Estonia it is 17+ from the last time i heard

I remember being so confused when I was shopping there and I was asked for my ID. I did a double and triple take over what I had purchased to see if I accidentally bought alcohol.

wonder how much of this "energy" comes from cafeine and such compared to how much actually comes from plain'ol deadly addictive sugar...

Does it even matter? It's clear they are shitty especially for kids.
- Well it does to some extent, because maybe they're just the tip of a wider problem, an easy target that lets conveniently 90+% of the hyper-sugar products, super-highly addictive and harmful, available to children...?

So when they ban sugar and junk foods? I think they cause more problems than soft drinks :D