... or, errr, an Irish coffee?

Look, I have no particular skin in the game of caffeinated coolers - what we in Canada at least call some industrial gak in a can that mixes a whole lot of herbs with booze and fluids. They cost 12 cents to make and someone sells them to you for three bucks... or seven in a bar. Not a lot in common with good beer made in accordance with one tradition or another. Yet, the new law in California does look a little silly:

State Senator Alex Padilla, the Pacoima Democrat who wrote the legislation, said in a statement that the drinks often are sold in “flashy” 23.5-ounce cans and marketed to underage drinkers. Caffeine and other stimulants, such as taurine and guarana, tend to mask the effects of alcohol, Padilla said. “Caffeinated beer beverages have been marketed to youth and are a threat to public health,” Padilla said in the July 14 statement as the bill went to Brown’s desk. “The added caffeine masks the effects of the high alcohol content, which can lead to binge drinking and dangerous behavior.”

Let me see. Selling strong drink is legal. Selling herbal drinks is legal. Selling caffeinated drink is legal as is having a whole bunch of flashy containers in your Tupperware cupboard. Does the combination make for a threat to public health or is any constituent part key? Or is it the stupidity... no, dullness... no, taste of the kid who would actually drink this stuff?

Then again, what else would we have the kids get blasted on? Because since Adam was in diapers kids have gotten blasted on something.