Border dashing high on Red Bull and ephedrine

WOIA:

U.S. Border Patrol agents say illegal immigrants are being given a potentially deadly cocktail of energy-generating items in hopes of speeding up their mad dash into the country, but agents are worried that the items may be increasing dehydration and leading to death in the baking hot brush country, 1200 WOAI news reports today.


"They're giving them what we call a 'triple stacker'," Border Patrol agent Jesus Rodriguez says. "That consists of an ephedrine-type bill, along with an aspirin, along with making them drink Red Bull."


Red Bull is an energy drink, which promotes itself as 'specially developed for times of increased mental and physical exertion.' It claims to 'increase endurance, concentration, and reaction speed.'

It works similar to the 'jolt' people get from coffee, through doses of caffeine and an amino acid called 'taurine.'


Ephedrine is a stimulant commonly used in weight loss products.


"They're getting a triple dose of caffeine, and that really exacerbates the dehydration process as they're walking across the desert," Rodriguez said.


"What it does, is it just dehydrates them that much faster, because most of them carry just one gallon of water."


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Sometimes you just can't trust people who you are paying to help you break the law. What are the chances that anyone will do anything about this on either side of the border? Not much. Now if it were a border agent doing it ....