Forget Cocaine Energy Drink. A new coffee roaster from San Francisco is hoping that drug-culture-laced marketing will help it sell Meth Coffee ? a blend of arabica coffee and the herbal supplement yerba mate ? at $12 for a 10-ounce pouch.
The company?s Web site MethCoffee.com includes a disclaimer that no methamphetamines are included in the coffee, but touts yerba mate as an energizing addition to their beans. Yerba mate is a species of holly, and when steeped in hot water it is slightly less potent than coffee but gentler on the stomach, according to the website Wikipedia.
Baltimore addictions educator Michael Gimbel called the drug-laced marketing push “disgusting,” belittling the suffering of thousands of Americans whose lives, brains and bone structure have been destroyed by the powerful illegal stimulants.
“This company is trying to make money off of the name methamphetamine,” Gimbel said. “I guess that?s what they feel they have to do to compete with Starbucks.”
Gimbel is a drug addictions educator with Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore.
A spokesperson for the company Meth Coffee could not be reached for comment.
Research has identified what coffee drinkers have known for decades, that caffeine itself is an addictive substance.
“Some heavy caffeine users grow irritable, get headaches or feel lethargic when they can?t get that coffee, soft drink, energy drink or cup of tea,” according to an online article in National Geographic News.
Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told National Geographic that caffeine addiction should be added to the next edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, a medical manual used by the World Health Organization.
Drug culture has influenced media and marketing for years ? evidenced by the driving beats, fast montages and electronic music of television advertising. Recent products such as Cocaine ?an energy drink by Las Vegas-based Redux Beverages ? and Meth Coffee go further by trademarking drug names for legal products.
While caffeine addiction has not received the media and regulatory attention of other substances, such as alcohol, tobacco and methamphetamines, Gimble said the combination of the two should be “offensive to any family that?s had somebody affected by methamphetamine addiction.”
