A new drink from YouTube superstars has sparked a cutthroat black market and anxiety among parents as it's become a status symbol for teens

• A black market has emerged in the UK among kids selling the influencer-fronted drink Prime.

• Frenzied demand has led pre-dawn lines at stores, and a resale market with markups exceeding 500%.

• Schools are implementing bans and moving to punish kids trying to cash in on demand.

In early February, 11-year-old George Hall was called into an assembly in his high school in the outskirts of London.

A school leader said students had been "extorting their peers," charging excessive prices for the internet-famous sports drink Prime.

George's mom, Kirsty Lloyd Hall, described the gathering to Insider, which agreed to withhold the name of the school to protect the privacy of staff and students.

The teacher said students had been charging as much as £10 ($12 or so) for a bottle of Prime, which is fronted by two of the biggest personalities on YouTube — KSI and Logan Paul.

Some children had already been punished, and the school was one of many moving to crack down on a black market that had emerged in recent months.

Prime is causing hysteria among children who see the drink as a status symbol, both due to its scarcity and its celebrity sheen. An advertising blitz and supply problems in the UK have led to an aggressive secondary market at schools around Britain, powered by enterprising teens with scant regard for school rules.

Videos on social media show huge lines on dark winter mornings outside stores, followed by frantic "Prime run" dashes through the aisles, dawn raids on the drinks shelves which can end in fights.

Stores have responded by rationing Prime to three or four bottles per customer, and in some cases by moving it behind the counter alongside cigarettes and liquor.

A status symbol kids will do anything to acquire

Lloyd Hall said her sister, who works as cabin crew for an airline, brought some Prime for George from the US, where it is significantly easier to find.

For George, having several bottles of Prime stocked in his fridge is a source of pride, and he hands out precious capfuls to his friends when they visit.

"He wants people to know that he's got it, so they're jealous," Lloyd Hall said.

Prime was launched in the US in January 2022, and came to the UK a few months later. It brought in $250 million in sales last year, Bloomberg reported.

In Britain, shortages have made it hard to come by unless kids and parents line up outside stores at opening time to snap up the latest stock.

Several parents told Insider that smaller local stores have taken to selling Prime at hefty markups, with bottles commanding prices between £3 and £25.

On eBay, Insider found hundreds of verified sales for £12-15. One bottle of the limited-edition orange and mango flavor had 13 people bidding for it at the time of writing.

Insider spoke to six teachers, parents, and guardians who said children had been buying and selling Prime — sometimes just the empty bottles — for up to seven times the recommended retail price.

One was Terry McHugh, a comedian in rural Northern Ireland.

He said his son Patrick paid £8 ($9.60), for a bottle of lemon and lime Prime a few weeks ago. McHugh said he'd never heard of the drink until an ad came on while the two were watching soccer together.

"He said, oh, you can't get it anywhere," McHugh told Insider. "He said people are selling it on the internet for £20-30 a bottle. My immediate reaction was like, is there cocaine in it? What's the fascination?"

Patrick told his dad people were lining up outside the grocery store from 7 a.m. to grab as much as they could to resell.

Benjamin Poli, a 22-year-old KSI fan involved in the resale market, said he has seen some bottles marked with security tags to prevent children stealing them, and had seen bottles taken behind the counter from shelves.

None of this has stopped the resale market from booming.

Ed, an English teacher from Manchester, told Insider that Prime is "all around the place" at his school. He said he was aware of an illicit trade underway, despite efforts by the kids to conceal it.

"It's very much under the table," he said. "If they get found then it all gets confiscated."

Schools are banning the drink altogether

Hoodo, who lives in Liverpool and asked to keep her last name private, told Insider that her nephew was given some Prime as a gift and started selling it at school for £10 a bottle.

The school responded by giving him detention and confiscating his stash. When the boy's mom went to collect the unsold bottles, some were missing, she said.

Insider contacted the schools mentioned in this article but they either declined to comment or did not respond.

Several schools have announced a total ban on Prime, citing the black market.

One headteacher wrote to parents saying that "teenagers find it even more difficult than adults to resist the lure of an effective advertising campaign", per local media in England's West Midlands.

It's likely going to be a challenge to tackle the hype, which has seen some kids displaying empty bottles like trophies.

McHugh said his son had given an empty Prime bottle pride of places next to his Lego collection. Lloyd Hall said her son had also taken to displaying the bottles, leaving her to dust them alongside her other household chores.

It's evident that customers will show up for Prime even at inflated prices. One shop owner in Coventry credited the drink with turning his business around, telling Insider it was close to collapse before a Prime-fueled sales boom.

Young people also won't jump out of bed in the early hours of the morning without good reason, Lloyd Hall said of her son's classmates.

"If you can get preteens and teenagers to be dressed and out at a shop at 6 a.m., that's really impressive."

Read the original article on Insider