Our children are being taken in by a new drug. A drug that's fattening, high in calories, and addictive. It's carried openly in schools, considered a sign of fashion. Even teen celebrities promote its glamorous image:

...it doesn’t help when trendsetters like Mary-Kate Olsen regale interviewers with tales like this: “When I was younger, on weekends, my mom would make us pancakes with our initials on them and then a tiny cup of coffee,” she told W magazine. “I remember at 10 sneaking my own coffee and pouring a ton of sugar in and going up to the playroom and drinking it.”

Oh no, coffee! I'd like to think that when an op-ed appears in the Boston Globe lamenting kids' coffee consumption, it's just a call for parents to be aware and responsible. I think we've learned by now that that's not the case. Can calls for school districts to ban coffee from students' hands be too far behind?

Remember, coffee also serves as a dangerous and deadly weapon!

Previous Boston Globe hand-wringing about kids and coffee noted by Rogier van Bakel here.

[Cross-posted at ER.]