SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro is not the only one who thinks caffeine-laden energy drinks should be kept away from youth.

Metro Huculak, superintendent of Yk Education District No. 1, said he would like to see on a ban on their sale to minors as well, and he believes most phys-ed teachers would agree.

"Kids that are playing hard will get dehydrated, but the best cure for that is water," he said.

He called for a return to the time when coaches and teachers would bring water and orange slices to share with young athletes.

"We used to bring bags of oranges for the bench and it worked," he said.

Huculak said that the energy drink trend in the schools probably started a couple of years ago.

Yk1 banned the sale of the energy drinks and pop in its schools, but that alone doesn't keep the drinks away from children.

"I think kids are drinking them on their own," he said.

Bisaro suggested in a statement to the legislative assembly last week that the territorial government should consider a total ban on the caffeine-laden syrupy drinks, but particularly to youth.

"I'm not wanting to be a Nazi for sure," she said Monday, referring to the idea of banning the drinks in the territory completely.

"I'm not somebody who wants to regulate everybody," she insisted. "People have a right to do certain things but we do have to protect our kids, I think."

She said her goal is to get the Department of Health and Social Services to at least examine the idea of banning the drinks for children.

The department's Drop the Pop campaign inspired her to take on the task of convincing kids not only to shun sugary pops, but also to nix energy drinks from their diets. Some of the canned drinks contain as much as 160 mg of caffeine - almost twice the recommended daily intake for children ages 10-12.

Bisaro said she won't be putting forward a motion to introduce a ban until after the next election, but she said restrictions on energy drinks should be similar to those on tobacco products, which are available to residents 18 years of age and older and are kept behind curtains on shelves behind the store counter.

"They're not available on the floor where kids can get at them, but if adults want them, they'd have to ask for them," she said of tobacco products. "That seems to work."

Health Canada regulates energy drinks under "natural health products" regulations because they contain ingredients such as taurine, caffeine and vitamins. The federal government is currently analyzing new information it received from an expert panel it consulted on energy drinks last fall.

A recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Journal described the caffeine loaded energy drinks as "drugs delivered in tasty syrup" and urged more stringent regulation of the product.

Energy drinks are sold prominently on the counter and beside other soft drinks in coolers at the Reddi Mart on 50th Street, plus many other convenience and grocery stores in the city.

Reddi Mart manager Qui Pham said she routinely sees drunk people buying energy drinks instead of eating food, which she said is unhealthy.

Even though she drinks them once in a while and sells them in her store, Pham said she would support a ban on the sugary drinks.

"If it harms people's health, I'm all for it," she said, but for now, she said each person is ultimately responsible for their own health.

"It's just like cigarettes, you have the choice to do it," she added.

Even though the legislative assembly doesn't sell energy drinks on the premises, Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay brings his own.

"I don't drink coffee, I just have never been a big fan of coffee," he said.

"I wouldn't categorize it as evil," he said in reference to what Bisaro said about energy drinks in the legislative assembly last week.

However, he's onside with Bisaro's idea to keep them away from people under the age of 16.

"Young kids drinking three or four of them to get a buzz, that's something we should try to curb," he said.

Perhaps legislators could even limit young kids from buying more than one at a time, he added.

"There's a lot of people that like them and I couldn't see banning their use period, but for kids it's a different story," Ramsay said.

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