Quebec is considering banning energy drinks for kids under 16 after a teen's death

Ever since 15-year-old Zachary Miron died after drinking a can of Red Bull while on a school ski trip in January 2024, his parents have been fighting a battle to ban energy drinks for children under 16.

A coroner’s report said the combination of medication he was taking for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the caffeine from the energy drink likely caused an arrhythmia that led to his sudden death.

His parents, David Miron and Veronica Martinez, are now part of a larger battle that’s ramping up across the province, with schools, sports associations and healthcare experts all pushing the government to take action.

“Young people are really at risk with this kind of easy access to these drinks,” Martinez said after meeting with Quebec’s health minister, Sonia Bélanger, on April 1.

Zachary was in perfect health at the time of his death, she said, and “if it can happen to a boy like that, no one is safe.”

The teen’s parents launched a petition in March and have since received support from parents, teachers, schools, school boards, public health associations and several junior sports leagues.

The petition on the Quebec government’s website has collected over 31,000 signatures, while the groups supporting their campaign represent one million youths across the province.

Their public calls for action are pushing the provincial government to consider what other jurisdictions have done to ban the drinks for children, while facing fierce opposition from the beverage industry. The advocates for stronger regulations are warning that easy access to sweetened high-caffeine beverages poses health risks to youths.

“We are no longer just a few school administrations, [but] a reflection of society,” said Patricia Steben, executive director of the Collège de Montréal, in a statement on Tuesday.

The provincial health minister agrees there’s a problem and told The Canadian Press in a statement that the government has been speaking with Quebec’s director of public health to see how they can accelerate actions to address it.

At the same time, Bélanger said the government has ongoing discussions with the provincial order of pharmacists and other provinces to discuss possible options or to see if any approaches adopted elsewhere could be deployed in Quebec.

“We want to move forward with a rigorous approach, based on data and science, to better understand the risks and interactions of various medications,” said Bélanger in the statement emailed by her office.

Quebec would not be the first to consider banning energy drinks for kids. Similar bans to the one advocated for in Quebec exist in Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and parts of Sweden.

The United Kingdom also tabled a law to ban the sale of energy drinks to those under 16 last year, citing concerns related to children’s physical and mental health due to the beverages’ high caffeine and sugar contents.

Kazakhstan has the strictest regulations after banning the sale of energy drinks to anyone under 21 last year.

Doctors Nova Scotia, the association representing all physicians in that province, has been pushing for a ban on energy drinks for those under 19 since the 2010s.

According to the association’s president, Dr. Shelly McNeil, the drinks can have adverse effects in children and young adults, ranging from seizures, diabetes and cardiac abnormalities to mood and behaviour disorders. They can also interact with certain medications.

The federal government classified all energy drinks as food items instead of natural health products in 2011. It says changing the regulation allowed it to impose stricter limits on caffeine content and enhance labelling requirements to include health risks to children and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

During consultations, the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Paediatric Society advocated for the beverages to be labelled as stimulants rather than food. They argued energy drinks produce drug-like effects and food regulations don’t go far enough.

In 2024, the government again heightened regulation for cautionary labels on energy drinks, calling them “supplemented foods,” which went into effect last January.

But some, like executive director of Sports Québec Isabelle Ducharme, say they’ve noticed an uptick in the number of young athletes consuming energy drinks for performance.

Sports Québec is one of the organizations pushing for the ban, and Ducharme stresses that the drinks are no replacement for “practice, learning technique, understanding the sport and … having proper rest to recuperate.”

The Canadian Beverages Association, a lobby group that advocates for the non-alcoholic beverage industry, has guidelines preventing the sale of energy drinks in schools. However, the group is against a flat-out ban on the sale of these beverages for youths, saying it would not address the overall concern of teen caffeine consumption.

The association says its stance is backed up by researchers like Dr. Marilyn Cornelis, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University.

Cornelis’ research focuses on caffeine’s effects on metabolism and health as well as caffeine consumption patterns, but not on energy drinks specifically. She says young people are more likely to consume caffeine through sweetened coffee beverages, tea and soda than energy drinks.

“I’m not sure [a ban] would serve the purpose because anyone who is interested in getting energy drinks specifically for the caffeine will just reach for coffee,” she said.

Cornelis says better health education on the effects of caffeine and how different substances can interact with medication is key.

At the Quebec legislature, Québec solidaire’s Guillaume Cliché-Rivard says his party is ready to collaborate with the government to adopt new legislation placing restrictions on energy drinks.

“Faced with such a consensus, the government must take action,” he said on Tuesday. “Health Minister Sonia Bélanger has listened, which is good. Now she must commit to concretely protecting the health and safety of our youth.”

— With files from Caroline Plante in Quebec City