‘Smart Drinks’ Tempt Today’s Trendies

NEW YORK —  Alcohol, the great social lubricant, no longer is invited to some bars and parties.

Instead, so-called smart drinks, often brightly colored fruit cocktails, have replaced it as the focal point in a number of social settings.

The trend started in San Francisco and Los Angeles with “rave parties”--huge underground affairs held in abandoned warehouses. Instead of alcohol, revelers tank up on “Power Punch,” “IQ Booster,” “Psuper Psonic Psyber Tonic” (or “Tang With a Bang”) and “Energy Elicksure.”

The smart drinks are sometimes promoted as increasing awareness and, for drug users, increasing the sensations of a drug trip. The drinks themselves, however, do not get a person high like illegal drugs such as Ecstasy or LSD.

Smart drink enthusiasts go to great pains to pooh-pooh alcohol as a depressant that makes the brain fuzzy.

“We’ve been doing bars since last summer, big rave underground warehouse parties,” said Tiffany McGuiness, who promotes the Los Angeles-based Earth Girl’s line of smart drinks. “What we do is go there and give them something good because they are all frying their brains out, something instead of alcohol because alcohol is a depressant. These drugs wake your mind and body up.”

For some, it’s a trend bred from years of abuse, a sort of retro-drug-guilt thing.

“People now are starting to see how detrimental (drug use) really is,” McGuiness said. “The Psuper Psonic Psyber Tonic really increases your memory, and drugs take away your memory. It’s that simple.”

The Limelight, a New York nightclub, recently added a permanent smart bar in addition to its alcohol-serving stations.

Bartender Miss Kitty (she offers no last name) says she prefers patrons who don’t drink alcohol.

“I’ve been at smart parties where there are hundreds of people and there are never any fights,” she said. “People just don’t get violent like they do when they drink alcohol.”

At a recent New York party promoting the debut of a line of drinks from a San Diego-based company called Think Smart, the concoctions drew mixed reviews. “I think it’s a big joke--you pay them $4 for a glass of fruit juice,” said one party-goer, Tiarra Murherjee. “I had one two hours ago and nothing! I feel nothing!”

But Carolyn Sanderson said her “Energy Plasma” made her feel as if there was a “tingling in my brain.” At 2:40 a.m., she said, “I feel wide awake and clearheaded. I’m up for the evening!”

The Energy Plasma, however, tasted medicinal, according to Trish Krauss: “It’s like Cheerios with a chemical-pill aftertaste, sort of like a Fred Flintstone vitamin.”

John Morgenthaler, co-author of the book “Smart Drugs and Nutrients,” says smart drinks offer a good alternative to alcohol.

“Smart bars are just good fun, harmless,” he said. “Perhaps it is indicative of the sign of things to come. People are moving away from dumb drugs.”

Scientists take a less charitable view of the smart drug and drink scene.