[SUBMITTED] Kickstart My Heart

[Dabarastan]

This issue is co-authored by Jim the Baptist.

Must have policy Capitalism

The Issue - Draft 2:

Medical practitioners in @@name@@ are being overwhelmed with cases of young people experiencing severe eye twitching, compulsive fidgeting, and heart palpitations. The culprit, they claim, is the recent boom in highly-caffeinated energy drinks that have flooded the nation's beverage industry.

1- "These unscrupulous, money-hungry companies are taking advantage of our young people with their flashy advertising, celebrity endorsements and deceptive claims," insists the Chief Physician of @@capital@@ Hospital. "Look at the labels - this one's being sold as a dietary supplement, another as a 'cognitive enhancement booster'! Unless you want the nation's youth all drinking themselves to early-onset heart attacks, you need to make a stand and ban these toxic energy drinks from @@demonymadjective@@ shelves entirely."
Effect: children surreptitiously trade bathtub-brewed energy drinks in dimly light back-alleys late at night

2- "Hold your horses!" energy drink company CEO Jack Twitchin gasps. "It's no secret young people love the energising kick of a sweet, juicy Max-Berry Explosopop. And who can blame them? They're delicious! OK, maybe we cut a few corners in the development stage, but it's never too late to innovate! What we now need is a drink with the same good vibes but without all the nasties. Send a little funding my way, and our company will develop a drink with the perfect blend of taurine, guarana and sodium hypochlorite that’ll quench anyone's thirst for a good time - one hundred-percent safely! We'll have to run some experimental trials on consumers, and sure, there might be some casualties, but isn't it worth it for the perfect Max-Berry experience?"
Effect: it's easy to spot energy drink addicts by their septic appearance and twitchy extra limbs

3- Your Minister for Fence-Sitting looks up from the latest edition of Indifferent Opinions magazine. "There's no need to go to either extreme. Why don't we empower consumers by giving them easy access to all the necessary information so they can decide what's best for themselves? Just put visible warnings on energy drink labels outlining all of the known health risks and side effects. If people still choose to ignore them, then, well, good luck getting to sleep at night!"
Effect: energy drinks are sold with encyclopedia-length labels detailing the associated health risks

[Jim the Baptist]

The Issue

Medical practitioners in @@name@@ are being overwhelmed with cases of young people experiencing severe eye twitching, compulsive fidgeting, and heart palpitations. The culprit, they claim, are all of the caffeine-concentrated energy drinks which have recently flooded the nation's beverage industry.

1- "These unscrupulous, money-hungry companies are taking advantage of our young people with their flashy advertising, celebrity endorsements and deceptive claims," insists the Chief Physician of @@capital@@ Hospital. "Look at the labels - this one's being sold as a dietary supplement, another as a 'cognitive enhancement booster'! Unless you want the nation's youth all drinking themselves to early-onset heart attacks, you need to make a stand and ban these dastardly energy drinks from @@demonymadjective@@ shelves entirely."
Effect: children surreptitiously trade bathtub-brewed energy drinks in dimly light back-alleys late at night

2- "Hold your horses!" energy drink company CEO Jack Twitchin gasps. "It's no secret young people love the energising kick of a sweet, juicy Max-Berry Explosopop. And who can blame them? They're delicious! OK, maybe we cut a few corners in the development stage, but it's never too late to innovate! What we now need is a drink with the same good vibes but without all the nasties. Send a little funding my way, and our company will develop a drink with the perfect blend of taurine, guarana and bleach that can be enjoyed by young people without all the dangerous side effects. We'll need to run some experimental trials on consumers, and sure, there might be some casualties, but isn't it worth it for the perfect Max-Berry experience?"
Effect: it's easy to spot energy drink addicts by their septic appearance and twitchy extra limbs

3- Your Minister for Fence-Sitting looks up from the latest edition of Indifferent Opinions magazine. "There's no need to go to either extreme. Why don't we empower consumers by giving them easy access to all the necessary information so they can decide what's best for themselves? Just put visible warnings on energy drink labels outlining all of the known health risks and side effects. If people still choose to ignore them, then, well, good luck getting to sleep at night!"
Effect: energy drinks are sold with encyclopedia-length labels detailing the associated health risks

[Australian rePublic]

Why is this exclusive to young people?

[Jim the Baptist]

Why is this exclusive to young people?

It doesn't necessarily have to be exclusive to young people but we feel that that's the only way the issue really makes logical sense, i.e. in the context of young people consuming lots of these unhealthy energy drinks. Middle-aged adults/elderly people (basically anyone not a young adult or teenager) don't (generally) drink energy drinks very much. So we framed it around young people to make it more relatable and relevant to the real world.

Also, we have made some changes to the wording in the premise and some of the options slightly.

[Dabarastan]

Bump

[Arpasia]

Judging by what Australian rePublic said, is the issue really exclusive to young people?

[Jim the Baptist]

Judging by what Australian rePublic said, is the issue really exclusive to young people?

As we explained above, we framed the issue around young people to make it more relevant and relatable. It's mainly only young people who actually consume energy drinks so we feel that making it more general makes it less realistic - a lot of readers would probably say "but in the real world, these drinks are mainly only consumed by young people. My grandmother doesn't have these energy drinks".

[Jim the Baptist]

We've put this issue on last call for feedback. Thank you