Rush To Ban Energy Drinks, Why?

The FDA is in a panic mode to ban energy drinks laced with alcohol after 5 teens die from drinking.  After some research I found a variety of numbers for annual deaths from these energy drinks. The highest I found were 20,000 annual deaths, so I will operate from that prospective. I figure the real number is far less. I decided to list deaths from other causes.

Tobacco  ——————————————— 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity ———— 365,000
Alcohol ———————————————— 85,000
Microbial Agents ———————————– 75,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes ————————– 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs – 32,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect —– 17,000
Bicyclist ———————————————– 700

Clearly the tobacco statistics leap out at us. We have to wonder why the government is quick to ban certain items and not others. My best guess is the government is fine with anything that brings in taxes. There were so many problems with the ban of alcohol that we have an amendment to the constitution for its legalization.

I see this is as just more government interference and eagerness to control our lives. Maybe they do this trying to prove they care about the people. We have the government banning everything from transfats to salt. Where does it all end? I suspect it ends with socialized medicine for which they will use as an excuse to control every aspect of our lives. If the government can’t tax or control something, they will attempt bans.

Several states are trying to legalize medicinal marijuana. My issue isn’t with marijuana, but the inconsistency in government. Never has any medicine been voted on during an election. As with any herbal medicine, the FDA has no control. The issue is that there’s a federal law against its use or possession. There are too many conflicting issues with medicinal marijuana to go into at the moment. We do need to put the brakes on government wanting to control everything that might do us harm. As we can see in the list above, there are many harmful things in the world. Will the government control or ban them all? Will we soon be required to wear a safety harness in the shower?