A step toward government control over caffeine

And so it begins…. The Brooklyn Law Review contains an student note arguing for federal control over caffeine, just as I predicted. The “caffeine industry” is “appeal[ing] to younger and more uninformed consumer bases,” Starbucks is getting rich, and caffeine is even “infiltrating college campuses,” leading to “caffeine abuse and unintentional overconsumption.” So, of course, the government must protect us. The federal government should prohibit the sale of high caffeine products, should “conduct[] safety tests for all products containing over 300mg of caffeine,” should label products like cigarettes, and should start a “caffeine awareness campaign,” to advertise the dangers of caffeine. The article is Nausheen Rokerya, Note: Caffeine: The New "Energy" Crisis: The Dietary Supplement Health And Education Act of 1994 And Its Implications for Caffeine Regulation, 75 Brooklyn L. Rev. 627 (2009).