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"A surprisingly high number of cases of caffeine abuse over the past three years, including 12 percent that required hospital treatment." Isn't using these drinks to boost your energy the same as using margin to buy stocks? 
-Gene

Both are certainly stretched to bullish extremes that would probably be unimaginable if they weren’t in place. Whatever it takes to “juice” the bull market experience. The energy drink buzz, its link to the bull market and a wave of societal wariness toward the whole phenomenon were covered in the October 9 and June 29 Socio Times entries as well as the August issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast (see Additional References below).

Cocaine’s recent splash appearance on the energy drink scene has been marked by a wave of interest on the part of young people and an even stronger backlash of disgust among various politicians, educators and anti-drug groups. “Drink Called ‘Cocaine’ Infuriates New York Mayor,” says one headline.  Cocaine, which contains 280 milligrams of caffeine per 8.4 ounce can, is marketed as a “legal high” that is an alternative the real thing. With its “over-the-top” appeal and high-powered buzz, the drink probably marks a high water mark for the energy drink movement. Can they possibly stuff any more caffeine into a single can? Maybe, but energy drinks recent combination with alcohol, the illicit associations of Cocaine and the emergence of “caffeine abuse” are strong signs of a transition to a bear market. Once a falling mood is in full possession of the trend, depressants and other more destructive substances will probably take over.

August 2006, EWFF
I Get A Kick from Ultra Jolt
Back in 2001, The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast offered a two-pronged forecast for coffee prices, saying that the price of coffee beans was heading higher, while the biggest chain of retail java shops, Starbucks, was headed much lower. We were right about coffee, which more than tripled, but very wrong about Starbucks. Still, the historic link between the popularity of coffee houses and big bull markets (discussed in November 2001 EWFF) remains in place, as Starbucks accompanied the Value Line Arithmetic index and several global indexes to substantial new all-time highs. It has also turned down from a May 5 peak in a form that is consistent with a long term peak.

As EWT noted with respect to Microsoft near its all-time high in late 1999, major peaks are followed by societal attacks against the most successful corporate beneficiaries of a bull market in social mood. So it is now with the world’s biggest coffee chain. Starbucks is “in the sights of the so-called ‘food police.’ The Center for Science in the Public Interest plans to take action against the popular coffee chain” for the high-fat products it sells. energy drinks are another bull market beverage that is suddenly under fire. “energy drinks Are Fueling Concern,” says the June 19 issue of The New York Times. Energy drinks complemented the bull market peak perfectly. They first hit the market at the 1987 high, when Jolt Cola and Red Bull were introduced. At the end of the greatest top-building process in stock market history, drinks with even more bullish sounding names— such as Extreme Energy Shot, EndoRush and Ultra-Jolt—and four times the caffeine of a traditional bull market beverage, Coca-Cola (see December 1999 issue of EWFF), comprise the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry.

Now, check out the latest twist, which literally cans the cross-currents of an expiring bull and a revitalized bear:
Energy drinks Add Another Kick–Alcohol
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 11, 2006

It picks you up and slows you down at the same time, the perfect cocktail for celebrating the all-time peak in the Value Line and the initiation of a third wave decline in the S&P. In a collective toast to the greatest top of all time, people everywhere are knocking back Tilt, Sparks and Liquid Charge. How long can it be before we hear: “Bartender, give me an energy drink, but hold the energy?” Not long, we bet.